Table of Contents

Timeline of Earth-1 (1970s)

1970

January, 1970

District Attorney Larry Jordan is gunned down by Joe Parsons. Helen Jordan dons the Air Wave costume for one case to bring her husband's killers to justice. [DC Comics Presents #40]

Gregori Arcane is blown up by a mine, but is patched together by his necromancer brother Anton Arcane to become the Frankenstein-like creature called the Patchwork Man, and is kept imprisoned for ten years. [Swamp Thing #3]

After his last recorded case at this time, Johnny Peril spends the next decade searching out dark secrets forbidden to most men, possibly while working at the Grimoire Academy of Applied Learning. [Unexpected #117]

March, 1970

During Spring Break, Clark Kent and his friend Ted O'Hara travel by Jeep through the Southwest. Donning a buffalo skin and headdress, Ted is possessed by the spirit of an American Indian medicine man with magical powers and helps Dr. John Navarro (the great-great grandson of the medicine man) in Cedarville to complete an operation. Note: Ted O'Hara is originally from Smallville and was a friend of Clark's when they were children, appearing in More Fun Comics #102 and #103 and others. His full name comes from Superboy #140. [“Healing Hands from Beyond,” Action Comics #410]

May, 1970

Lorna Martin learns that Clark Kent is Superboy using her ESP powers, but keeps the secret to herself. Returning to Dimension 7 at the end of the semester, she asks the Council of Mentors to allow her to bring Superboy back with her, but her request is denied, and she remains there for years. [“The Girl Who Worshipped Clark Kent,” Action Comics #411]

May 1: U.S. troops invade Cambodia.

May 4: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed by National Guardsmen at a protest against U.S. incursion into Cambodia.

May 6: Cliff Baker is born to Buddy Baker (Animal Man) and his wife Ellen Baker.

May 14: Prof. Thaddeus V. Maxwell tries to prove that his student Clark Kent is Superboy, but Clark outwits him by inwardly renaming himself Superman in order to thwart a lie-detector test. On that same day, the school for underprivileged youth begun by Marla Harvey is completed, and Superman dedicates it to the same young woman who, one year earlier, had challenged Superboy to become a Superman. Note: The world would not officially acknowledge Superboy as Superman until the next year. [“Clark Kent's College Days,” Superman #125; “The Day Superboy Became Superman,” Action Comics #393]

June, 1970

June 3: 15-year-old Jimmy Olsen leaves his home in Mapleton to live in nearby Metropolis for the summer, travels back in time 20 years to Krypton and becomes Kal-El's babysitter, and upon his return Superman gets him a job at the Daily Planet as a copy boy. Note: It is evident from the Jimmy Olsen story in Superman Family #218 that Jimmy was a copy boy at the Daily Planet for some years before he became a cub reporter there. The 2nd story in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #38 also reveals that Jimmy was a copy boy as a teenager when he met Superman. Although Superman does befriend Jimmy at this time, he does not give him a signal watch for two more years. Since Jimmy continues to go to high school in Mapleton, he probably only has his Daily Planet copy boy job during the summers, unless he commutes after school into Metropolis each day. [“How Jimmy Olsen First Met Superman,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #36; date from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #84]

June 24: The Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

July, 1970

Selina Kyle, a young flight attendant for Speed Airlines, sustains a head injury that causes her to have amnesia. She soon turns to crime, eventually establishing a reputation for herself as a master thief called the Cat, later known as the Catwoman. [“The Secret Life of the Catwoman,” Batman #62 (December, 1950-January, 1951)]

September, 1970

Lex Luthor escapes from reform school, and Superman tries to track him down. Clark Kent meets Billy Cramer, a younger shy boy from Smallville. Superman catches Lex Luthor and takes him to prison, since he turns 21 later this month. Ducky Ginsberg is crippled in a drunk driving accident he caused. Note: This story reveals that Lana Lang has already transferred from Metropolis University to Hudson University. [“Dreams and Schemes and Feeling Proud,” Superman: The Secret Years #1]

Billy Cramer moves into Clark's room as his new roommate, while Tommy Lee moves in with Dave Hammond. At Luthor's trial, he is sentenced to 10 years in the state penitentiary. Billy helps Clark avoid being the target of Steve Powers' revenge scheme. [“Reach Out and Touch,” Superman: The Secret Years #2]

September 15: Bruce Wayne, musing on how to inspire fear in criminals, witnesses a bat flying through his open window. This seminal event inspires him to become the Batman. Note: The date is derived by the full moon, which must be the last full moon before the Batman's first appearance in October, 1970.

September 20: Clark Kent meets the beautiful Lori Lemaris, who is secretly a mermaid and who ignores Billy Cramer's presence completely. Later, when Clark's biology class is touring a floating aquarium, a boiler explodes, damaging the aquarium and forcing everyone to evacuate. While herding all the fish into a net, Superman sees Lori Lemaris still underwater and calming a giant octopus. [“The Girl in Superman's Past,” Superman #129; “Reach Out and Touch,” Superman: The Secret Years #2]

Clark Kent begins dating Lori Lemaris. Meanwhile, Superman tries to crack the Bermuda Triangle mystery and discovers a thriving community of people who fell through a rip in space in the Bermuda Triangle into another dimension. Since they are happy there, he vows at their request not to let anyone know what happened to them. Clark reveals his secret identity of Billy Cramer, since he is his new best friend. [“The Girl in Superman's Past,” Superman #129; “Reach Out and Touch,” Superman: The Secret Years #2]

Superman gives Billy Cramer a special ultrasonic whistle to summon his help whenever he needs it. Over the next few months, Superman and Billy make a great team. [“Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

October, 1970

October 14: The Batman, wearing a crude-looking original costume with longer ears and a bigger utility belt, makes his first public appearance. In his very first case, the Batman is tricked by a thief named “Slugsy” Kyle and is knocked out and briefly captured after he trails him to the Gotham Glass Works factory. Finally, the Batman manages to outwit Kyle and capture him. Soon after, the Batman stops two bank robbers on a rooftop after they robbed the First Federal Bank. Capturing them and tying them up, the Batman leaves them for Police Commissioner James W. Gordon and his men to find, along with a hastily scrawled note identifying himself only with a bat-symbol, which gives him the name of the Bat. Officer Collins, spotting the Batman fleeing the scene, fires off two shots until Gordon stops him. Note: The Batman's first case supposedly takes place on December 4, according to 1976 Super DC Calendar, but this date is not a full moon in 1970, and it seems to be nearly two months too late to be Batman's “first case,” so it's possible this date refers to another event. The Batman's public debut takes place exactly 15 years before the events of Batman #400. After getting out of jail in 1974, Kyle becomes the villain known as the Clock. Although the scene of Batman fighting two crooks on a rooftop is based on “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” from Detective Comics #27, it cannot be that case, which actually occurs on Earth-1 in a different way in 1978, as depicted in Detective Comics #387. The appearance of a full moon places this story on October 14, 1970. Originally using a crude bat-costume with large bat-ears as an initial test, Batman creates over the next couple of months a sleeker-looking costume with smaller bat-ears that becomes his defined look. He also begins building his crime-fighting tools, such as the Batcave, the Batmobile, and the Batplane, keeping him busy until he has his first official case in December. However, Batman's exploits are largely unknown by the general public until mid-1971, and the Batman is believed to be an urban myth until then. Since there is no clear demarcation between the Golden Age and Silver Age Batman, and since the Silver Age Batman is generally accepted to have had many of the same early adventures as the Golden Age Batman, it's likely that his career begins earlier than previously believed. It is worthwhile to note that Dennis O'Neil once stated that Bruce Wayne became Batman before he turned 21 years old, which would happen on February 19, 1971, just four months after this event. [“The Legend of the Batman: Who He is and How He Came to Be,” Batman #1 (Spring, 1940); “Batman's First Case,” Detective Comics #265 (March, 1959); “Earth: Without a Justice League,” Justice League of America #37 (August, 1965); “The Man Behind the Mask,” The Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September, 1980); “Resurrection Night,” Batman #400 (October, 1986)]

November, 1970

November 3:

Harvey Dent is elected as Gotham City's youngest district attorney.

The Batman, wearing a new, permanent costume, visits the offices of Police Commissioner James W. Gordon and offers his services to the police, but Gordon rebuffs him, telling him that police work isn't for amateurs. The Batman then visits Harvey Dent, the newly elected district attorney on the eve of his election, and makes the same offer, which Dent accepts. The Batman and Harvey Dent begin a friendship and secret working relationship that lasts for the next six months. Note: The Batman's real but relatively unexplored friendship with Harvey Dent inspires this speculation. [“Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery,” Detective Comics #234 (August, 1956); “The Crimes of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #66 (August, 1942)]

The Batman's second official case is the Venice Murder Case. Note: Nothing is known about the Venice Murder Case, other than that the Batman obtained a gondola as a trophy. [“The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave,” Batman #48 (August-September, 1948)]

December, 1970

Pete Ross, visiting from Raleigh University, is reunited with Clark Kent and meets Billy Cramer. Later, Clark visits Billy's family's second home in Florida during winter break. [“Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

December 4-6: The Batman encounters an extortionist called Doctor Death, who uses a death pollen to extract a tribute from wealthy people. After the Batman pursues the villain to his house, Doctor Death dies in a fiery inferno that consumes his entire laboratory and home, but Doctor Death escapes via a secret passage after sustaining first-degree burns. Unknown to the Batman, Doctor Death is really an agent of the true mastermind, Dr. Karl Hellfern, who averts all suspicions by working through proxies. Around this time, the Batman is considered an outlaw by the police. Note: There is a reference to the Batman battling a Doctor Death in his first year in Untold Legend of the Batman #3, but since the Earth-1 Doctor Death is actually introduced for the first time later on in a present-day story, the original Doctor Death is likely a different man acting as an agent for Dr. Karl Hellfern, whose reputation remains intact. [“The Batman Meets Doctor Death,” Detective Comics #29 (July, 1939); “The Man Behind the Mask,” The Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September, 1980)]

December 12: The Batman, discovering that Doctor Death is still alive, encounters him again and recovers stolen diamonds from the widow of the man he killed (secretly at the behest of Dr. Karl Hellfern), before capturing him for the police. Note: After this story, Dr. Karl Hellfern decides to forgo his risky extortion schemes for over a decade, concentrating instead on building a legitimate front business while secretly selling his formulas to the underworld. [The Batman, Detective Comics #30 (August, 1939)]

1971

January, 1971

At Raleigh College, Lois Lane is a new reporter at the Raleigh Review, where she is assigned three stories as part of a hazing process. The first is a story on how she joins the men's fencing team. Coincidentally, Superman is visiting his friend Pete Ross (who is captain of the men's fencing team) and ends up losing a match to Lois while disguised as Pete because of a piece of kryptonite, enabling her to join the team. Soon after, Superman frightens off a fleet of Serpent Galaxy aliens from invading Earth by creating a red comet, inadvertently giving Lois her next scoop when she discovers that comet, dubbed the Lois Lane Comet. Then Superman is affected by a type of red kryptonite that changes him into any animal he thinks of, changing him into a pterodactyl and then a saber-tooth tiger. Lois, taking pictures of Superman in those ancient animal forms, gets her third scoop and is named co-editor of the Raleigh Review. [“Lois Lane's College Scoops,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #55]

January 26: The Batman battles his first costumed foe, the Monarch of Menace, who manages to outwit both the police and the Batman during his crime-spree before vanishing without a trace. Dana Drye, the greatest living detective, deduces that the Batman is Bruce Wayne, but he keeps it to himself rather than tell the police. [“The Monarch of Menace,” Detective Comics #350 (April, 1966); “The Case Batman Failed to Solve,” Batman #14 (December, 1942-January, 1943)]

February, 1971

February 1-7: The Batman encounters Prof. Hugo Strange for the first time, foiling a crime wave enabled by a thick, heavy artificial fog created by Strange's machine. After clearing his name of the murder of an FBI agent and saving the city, the Batman is recognized as a hero by the police for the first time for his role in stopping the crime-spree. [The Batman, Detective Comics #36 (February, 1940)]

Clark Kent and Lois Lane, leading student reporters at their respective colleges, are invited to meet Daily Planet reporter/editor Perry White in Metropolis. While there, they meet copy boy Jimmy Olsen, and Perry shows them a Gotham Globe headline about the Batman in Gotham City, which is the first time they've heard of the Batman. Note: This is speculation based on a flashback in World's Finest Comics #271 that must take place about a year before Lois starts working at the Daily Planet. [“The Secret Origins of the Superman and Batman Team,” World's Finest Comics #271 (September, 1981)]

March, 1971

The Batman completes the construction of the original Batmobile, a powerful black convertible sedan with no special features. [“The Origin of Robin,” Batman #213 (July-August, 1969)]

March 12-13: While testing out the Batmobile, the Batman saves the lives of the Jones family, who decide to name their newborn baby after him, calling him Batman Jones. On the way back to Gotham City, the Batman stumbles upon a spy plot to begin an international crisis by blowing up a foreign ship, the Ronij, and prevents that from happening. Discovering that the head of the foreign spies is Count Grutt, the Batman confronts Grutt, only for the count to accidentally impale himself upon his own sword. [“The Career of Batman Jones,” Batman #108 (June, 1957); The Batman, Detective Comics #37 (March, 1940)]

The Batman takes in a teenage boy named John Vance after he becomes a witness to a bank robbery. After Batman disguises him in a smaller Batman costume, Vance calls himself Batman, Junior and helps Batman take down Birrel Binter, the head of the bank robbers, but Vance also lets slip an important clue to his identity by revealing he is a school athlete, which would cause him trouble years later. [“Batman, Junior,” Detective Comics #231 (May, 1956)]

April, 1971

The Batman completes construction of the first Batplane, then uses it to save a biplane from crashing into the streets of Gotham City during an exhibition flight. [“Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery,” Detective Comics #234 (August, 1956)]

May, 1971

The Batman meets Lee Collins, an Australian boomerang expert who teaches the Batman how to expertly use a boomerang over several weeks of training. [“The 100 Batarangs of Batman,” Detective Comics #244 (June, 1957)]

A genius laboratory worker, deciding to steal $1,000,000 and then retire, dons an ingeniously built red helmet with one-way see-through red glass and an oxygen system allowing him to breathe while underwater. Calling himself the Red Hood, he begins a crime spree, and the Batman originally doubts the Red Hood's description from the eyewitness reports. [“The Man Behind the Red Hood,” Detective Comics #168 (February, 1951)]

May 3: Anti-war militants disrupt government business in Washington, D.C., during the 1971 May Day Protests.

May 8-10: After transforming five men into 15-foot-tall giant monster-men, Prof. Hugo Strange has his men send them out to different parts of Gotham City to cause distractions while his gang loots the banks. After Prof. Strange falls into the bay below his cliffside hideout, the Batman is forced to destroy the monster-men with the aid of his Batplane. [The Giants of Hugo Strange, Batman #1 (Spring, 1940)]

May 11: During the trial of Sal “Boss” Maroni, District Attorney Harvey Dent is injured when Maroni throws a bottle of acid at his face, but the Batman deflects it, keeping it from hitting him full on. However, the left side of his face and his left hand are hideously scarred, and he is rushed into surgery. Afterward, Dent recovers for one month wrapped in bandages. Note: The Earth-2 Harvey Dent is named Harvey Kent. The Earth-2 Boss Maroni is called Boss Moroni. [“The Crimes of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #66 (August, 1942); “The Secret Origin of Two-Face: Double Take,” DC Super Stars #14 (May-June, 1977)]

May 26: After Clark Kent and Lori Lemaris have been dating for several months, Lori tells him she must return home to her parents tomorrow night. Clark determines to propose to her and tell her his secret identity, but he is restricted to his dormitory as part of a fraternity initiation. He creates a diversion allowing him to leave, and after bringing Lori to a romantic spot by the seaside, Clark proposes. Lori reveals she knows he is Superman but says they cannot marry. Feeling jealous, Superman follows her to her trailer house and hears her sending messages, concluding that she may be a spy. Searching her trailer after she leaves, Superman finds a large water tank and, realizing she is a mermaid, determines to confront her. [“The Girl in Superman's Past,” Superman #129; “Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

May 27:

Billy Cramer tries to cheer up the heartbroken Clark Kent and uses his ultrasonic whistle to summon Superman, but Superman angrily tells Billy not to use it except in emergencies. [“Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

Superman confronts Lori Lemaris, but the state dam bursts at that moment, and he brings Lori with him to help with rescue operations. After he restores the dam, Superman returns to Lori's trailer, where she explains that as a mermaid from Atlantis she possesses telepathy. Every 100 years someone is chosen to go to the surface world to report on its progress. Superman and Lori Lemaris share one last kiss underwater, and she returns to her people. [“The Girl in Superman's Past,” Superman #129; “Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

While moping over the loss of Lori Lemaris, Superman learns of a tsunami in in the South Pacific and is about to save everyone on the resort island of Pandango when he hears Billy Cramer's whistle and sees he is trapped in a burning building. After saving the island from the tsunami, Superman races back to Metropolis only to find that Billy died from suffocation in the fire. He learns from a police officer that Billy charged into the burning building to save a baby. Superman goes into seclusion over the summer, feeling that this is one of his greatest failures. [“Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #3]

June, 1971

June 3: The Batman encounters the Red Hood for the first time, but the slippery criminal makes his escape. [“The Man Behind the Red Hood,” Detective Comics #168 (February, 1951)]

Lee Collins presents the Batman with his first batarang upon the completion of his boomerang training. [“The 100 Batarangs of Batman,” Detective Comics #244 (June, 1957)]

June 7-11: The Batman battles a vampire known only as the Master Monk after he kidnaps Bruce Wayne's fiancee, Julie Madison. Note: The Master Monk is probably not the same vampire known as the Monk, whom Batman encounters in the 1980s. [The Batman, Detective Comics #31 (September, 1939); The Batman, Detective Comics #32 (October, 1939)]

June 12: Harvey Dent's bandages come off, and he learns that his surgery has failed to save his face. The trauma leads him to become a criminal called Two-Face, using Boss Maroni's two-headed silver dollar to let chance decide his every action, scarring one side of the coin to represent evil. Two-Face spends the next month hiring a gang and establishing a secret room that is half-beautiful and half-ugly to act as his hideout. [“The Crimes of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #66 (August, 1942)]

July, 1971

July 5: The voting age in the United States is lowered from age 21 to age 18.

July 11: One month after their last encounter, Batman and three security guards corner the Red Hood at the Ace Chemical Processing Plant next to the Monarch Playing Card Company, which the Red Hood has just robbed, completing his goal of stealing $1,000,000. Escaping by jumping into a catch basin full of chemical wastes, the Red Hood swims out to the river, then returns home to discover that the chemicals have caused his hair to become green, his skin chalk-white, and his lips ruby-red. Taking inspiration from his appearance and the playing card company he robbed, he forms the identity of the Joker. The Batman is unable to solve the mystery of the Red Hood's identity for a few years, hardly guessing that he becomes his arch-enemy, the Joker. [“The Man Behind the Red Hood,” Detective Comics #168 (February, 1951)]

July 12: Two-Face and his gang begin a crime wave that confuses the public, as he is a thief and killer when the coin lands scarred side up, and a philanthropist when it lands unscarred side up. [“The Crimes of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #66 (August, 1942)]

July 15-16: While the Haly Circus is in Newtown, John and Mary Grayson fall to their deaths during a trapeze act before 10-year-old Dick Grayson's eyes. After overhearing that his parents were murdered, Dick plans to go to the police, but the Batman takes him in for his own protection, since “Boss” Zucco owns the police in this town. After Dick pleads with the Batman to train him so he can avenge his parents' deaths, the Batman brings Dick to the Bat-Cave where he has him swear an oath to fight crime and always remain righteous. The Batman then reveals his identity of Bruce Wayne. The next day, after obtaining permission from Dick's aunt, Harriet Cooper, Bruce becomes Dick's legal guardian. The Batman then begins training Dick over the next few months. [“Robin the Boy Wonder,” Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940); “The Origin of Robin,” Batman #213 (July-August, 1969)]

July 16-17: The Batman confronts Two-Face, still believing that his friend Harvey Dent can be redeemed, but Two-Face tries to kill him twice. Finally, when Two-Face flips his coin to determine whether he should continue as a criminal or give himself up to the law, the coin lands on its side, leaving the decision to fate instead of chance. Note: Although Robin the Boy Wonder appears in the original version of this story, on Earth-1 Dick Grayson has not yet become Robin at this time and plays no role in this case. [“The Crimes of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #66 (August, 1942)]

July 28: The Batman first meets the Catwoman, originally known as the Cat, when she steals a valuable emerald necklace on a yacht. Note: This is Dick Grayson's first mission assisting the Batman, though this takes place before he becomes Robin. [The Cat, Batman #1 (Spring, 1940); “The Women in Batman's Life,” Batman #208 (January-February, 1969)]

August, 1971

August 12: Missing for 11 weeks, Superman stews in regret and spends some time in the other-dimensional world beyond the Bermuda Triangle while Perry White tries to track down the reason for Superman's disappearance and is given Billy Cramer's whistle by Inspector Henderson. Having escaped during that time, Lex Luthor sends 36 satellites into orbit. [“Beyond Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #4]

August 3-14: Batman solves the Case of the Prophetic Pictures with the secret help of a disguised Dick Grayson, still in training. [“The Case of the Prophetic Pictures,” Detective Comics #42 (August, 1940)]

August 18: A week after sending up his satellites, Luthor publicly challenges Superman to a one-on-one duel with him, or he will destroy the world with his satellites. Perry and Henderson summon Superman from the Bermuda Triangle dimension using the whistle. Superman battles Luthor, who has given himself powers equal to a Kryptonian's, while it is broadcast on worldwide television. Luthor supposedly kills Superman and destroys the satellites. Superman then reveals he was playing dead, and he demands to be called Superman from now on instead of Superboy, which most people were still calling him despite his age. Perry White becomes editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet after George Taylor's retirement at age 65. [“Beyond Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #4]

Superman dismantles all of his Superboy robots except his greatest creation, a Superboy robot that can think independently, and deactivates it instead. [Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #37]

Superman creates his first four atomic-powered Superman robots, including Robot X-3, and trains them. Note: This marks the last time the aging Krypto appears on Earth before his return in 1974. [Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #30]

The Anti-Superboy Gang, an informal alliance of gangsters formed when Superman was Superboy, changes its name to the Anti-Superman Gang after Superboy is acknowledged as Superman.

During the time Clark Kent finishes his final year at Metropolis University, Superman establishes a worldwide patrol and begins to focus less specifically on Metropolis, so that by mid-1972 Metropolis is not known as Superman's definite home any longer, but only one possible home base. Superman also begins evaluating which city he wants to make his home once he's graduated, and he tries out several cities for days or weeks at a time over the next year, reinforcing the idea that Superman hasn't chosen a permanent home base yet. [Speculation based on “The Secret of Silver Kryptonite,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #70 (July, 1963) and “Superman's Three Mistakes,” Superman #105 (May, 1956)]

August 25: Dick Grayson becomes Robin the Boy Wonder, crime-fighting partner of the Batman, donning a costume once used by Bruce Wayne as a boy while training under private detective Harvey Harris. [“The Origin of Robin,” Batman #213 (July-August, 1969)]

August 28-29: While Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are visiting Bruce's fiancee Julie Madison on the set of a new movie, Dread Castle (a remake of an earlier film), star actress Lorna Dane is murdered, and the police are stumped. [“The Murders of Clayface,” Detective Comics #40 (June, 1940); “The Women in Batman's Life,” Batman #208 (January-February, 1969)]

August 30-31: Shunned by the other professors for his old clothing and strange methods, such as firing off a gun in class, psychology Professor Jonathan Crane of Gotham City University decides to become a criminal called the Scarecrow in order to have more money to spend on books. [“The Scarecrow,” World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall, 1941); “Fright of the Scarecrow,” Batman #189 (February, 1967)]

September, 1971

Back at school for his final term, Clark Kent is reunited with Ducky Ginsberg, who has given up drinking after being put in a wheelchair. [“Beyond Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #4]

Tony Gordon, son of James and Thelma Gordon, begins attending college.

September 2-4: Batman and Robin confront Prof. Hugo Strange when the villain uses fear dust in his crimes. Strange is thought to be dead after he falls over a cliff. [“Professor Strange's Fear Dust,” Detective Comics #46 (December, 1940)]

September 3-5: Batman and Robin battle the Scarecrow for the first time, who murders a man in cold blood. As Prof. Jonathan Crane, he is fired from Gotham City University for his outrageous teaching methods. [“The Scarecrow,” World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall, 1941)]

September 5-6: Another murder at the movie studio occurs before Batman saves Julie Madison from Clayface, who is revealed to be former top actor Basil Karlo, the bitter star of the original Dread Castle film who hated the director for casting another actor in one of his greatest roles. [“The Murders of Clayface,” Detective Comics #40 (June, 1940); “The Women in Batman's Life,” Batman #208 (January-February, 1969)]

September 8-9: Batman discovers that the Scarecrow is Prof. Jonathan Crane, and he and Robin manage to track him down and arrest him. [“The Scarecrow,” World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall, 1941)]

October, 1971

Robotman goes into semi-retirement after his last case. [Detective Comics #202]

October 3: The Catwoman appears for the first time in her original costume, a black dress with a cat's-head mask. [“The Batman Versus the Catwoman,” Batman #3 (Fall, 1940).]

October 1-5: Batman and Robin return to Newtown, where they wreak havoc on “Boss” Zucco's criminal empire there. After a crook named Blade signs a confession that he killed the Graysons for Zucco, Zucco pushes the man off a building, killing him. Robin takes a photo of the murder, which convicts Zucco and sends him to the electric chair. Now that his parents are avenged, Dick decides to continue helping the Batman fight crime as Robin. [“Robin the Boy Wonder,” Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940); “The Origin of Robin,” Batman #213 (July-August, 1969)]

October 11-15: The Joker begins a series of murders by announcing them on the radio beforehand, then managing to kill each victim despite police protection with his Joker venom, which causes its victims to die with a grisly smile on their lips. The Joker's victims include millionaires Henry Claridge and Jay Wilde, gangster Brute Nelson, and Judge Drake. Batman and Robin manage to track him down, stop him from killing millionaire Otto Drexel, and capture him before he can fall off a building. Batman delivers him to the police by dropping him off from his Batmobile at the curb in front of Gotham City Police Headquarters, as Commissioner James W. Gordon watches. [“The Joker,” Batman #1 (Spring, 1940); “The Man Behind the Mask,” Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September, 1980)]

October 22: Bruce Wayne and Julie Madison call off their engagement after Julie dons her stage name of Portia Storme to become a star actress. [“Clayface Walks Again,” Detective Comics #49 (March, 1941)]

October 25: The United Nations admits the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (Taiwan).

October 29-30: Bruce Wayne is reunited with an old friend, Linda Page, who is now a nurse. They begin dating. [“Crime Does Not Pay,” Batman #5 (Spring, 1941); “The Women in Batman's Life,” Batman #208 (January-February, 1969)]

November, 1971

November 2-3: After a year of pursuing Batman as a wanted vigilante, Commissioner James W. Gordon comes face to face with Batman when he saves him from being stabbed by a criminal, so he lets him go free. Later that evening when Batman visits Gordon in his office, Gordon attempts to arrest him. But Batman manages to convince him that they're on the same side, so Gordon relents and shakes his hand. The next day, Batman visits Gordon once more, only to find that Gordon is again doubting Batman's ability as a lawman. Gordon brings Batman along on a case at the Museum of Time in order to show him that police work is too much for him, but Batman solves the case quickly by exposing the hidden thief there, and Gordon is impressed enough to tell Batman that the police can use his help after all. [“The Man Behind the Mask,” Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September, 1980); “Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery,” Detective Comics #234 (August, 1956)]

November 7: Commissioner James W. Gordon makes Batman an honorary member of the Gotham City Police Department, officially ending his status as an outlaw vigilante. [“The People Versus the Batman,” Batman #7 (October, 1941)]

November 8-17: Batman and Robin encounter the Penguin, who is using the alias of a collector named Mr. Boniface, and who briefly frames Batman for his crimes. [“The Penguin,” Detective Comics #58 (December, 1941)]

November 18: With the death of Dana Drye, Batman becomes known as the greatest living detective. [“The Case Batman Failed to Solve,” Batman #14 (December, 1942-January, 1943)]

December, 1971

December 10: Robin has his first solo case when he brings in Champ Trask and his gang. [“Operation Escape,” Star Spangled Comics #124 (January, 1952)]

December 13

Batman and Robin battle the Scarecrow a second time. Bruce Wayne and Linda Page decide to break up after this case, though they remain friends. [“The Scarecrow Returns,” Detective Comics #73 (March, 1943)]

Lois Lane graduates from Raleigh College one semester early and immediately moves to Metropolis, obtaining a job as a waitress at Harry's Dog House diner across from the Daily Planet, where she hopes to work. However, she is unimpressed by the reporters who frequent the diner and quickly grows to dislike them, causing her to reconsider her lifelong ambition to become a reporter for some other career. [“The Girl Who Hated Reporters,” World's Finest Comics #47]

December 14: Alfred Pennyworth becomes the butler for Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, not knowing they are Batman and Robin. [“The Secret of Batman's Butler,” Batman #110 (September, 1957)]

December 14-20: Batman and Robin have their final encounter with Two-Face, alias Harvey Dent, who decides to reform and seek help after his fiancee Gilda Gold is accidentally shot. Dent's sentence is considerably reduced, thanks to Batman. [“The End of Two-Face,” Detective Comics #80 (October, 1943)]

December 30: While visiting London, Batman and Robin assist Inspector Smythe of Scotland Yard against international spy Count Florian, nicknamed the Man Without a Country and the Man with a Thousand Eyes. [“The Man with a Thousand Eyes,” World's Finest Comics #43 (December, 1949-January, 1950)]

December 31: Taking a Christmas holiday voyage by boat, Oliver Queen is knocked off his yacht and falls into the ocean. Washing up on the shores of Starfish Island, Oliver spends the next nine months fighting for survival by re-learning his long-forgotten archery skills in order to hunt for food. He also makes himself a makeshift costume from foliage that resembles Robin Hood's outfit. [“The Green Arrow's First Case,” Adventure Comics #256 (January, 1959); Green Arrow, DC Super Stars #17 (November-December, 1977)]

1972

January, 1972

January 1

Commissioner James W. Gordon begins using the Bat-Signal, a modified searchlight used to summon Batman and Robin. [“Case of the Costume-Clad Killers,” Detective Comics #60 (February, 1942)]

January 15: Lois Lane meets Superman while working as a waitress at Harry's Dog House diner after Superman learned of a plot by gangster Eddie Fisk to kill Daily Planet reporters who helped send his partner to jail. Superman catches two of Fisk's gunmen with Lois' help. While Superman delivers the gunmen to the police, Lois charges into Fisk's night club, angry over the assassination attempt and her ruined dress. After her temper cools, she realizes she can gain evidence on Fisk by befriending him. Then Metropolis University journalism student Clark Kent, posing as a Daily Planet reporter, is captured by Fisk's men. Fisk makes Lois shoot the supposed reporter with a gun, but Superman causes the bullets to boomerang around Fisk, trapping him. Fisk's men take Lois as a hostage when Superman is briefly absent, and Superman brings Fisk to police headquarters. Superman then uses the bloodhound-shaped diner to search for Lois. She realizes that she does want to be a Daily Planet reporter after all and applies for a job at the Daily Planet. [“The Girl Who Hated Reporters,” World's Finest Comics #47]

January 16-18: Daily Planet editor Perry White promises to hire Lois Lane if she can get three scoops in three days. Lois exposes Henry Blaine at the Metropolis Safe Company as the man behind the safe crackers known collectively as the Ghost; at the same time, Superman restores power at the Metropolis Hospital and inadvertently assists Lois in her scoop. The next day, Lois takes the first ever picture of the Rajah of Sari, exposing his true identity as a notorious jewel thief; at the same time, Superman uses his super-breath to help a grounded plane's propellers to start, coincidentally exposing the Rajah's face. The next day, Lois tracks down archaeologist Prof. Thorne and writes the story about his discovery of the Giantosaurus but is forced to send it in a bottle on the Racing River into Metropolis Bay; at that moment, Superman rescues a sunken submarine in Metropolis Bay that was blocking the mouth of the Racing River, inadvertently helping Lois' story to reach the Daily Planet. [“How Lois Lane Got Her Job,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #17]

January 19-20: Alfred Pennyworth discovers that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are Batman and Robin after Batman is brought home injured, and Robin gets Alfred to see to his wounds. Bruce then shows Alfred the Batcave and assigns him to keep it tidy. [“The Secret of Batman's Butler,” Batman #110 (September, 1957)]

February, 1972

While working at Bannerman Pharmaceuticals, George Szerro's idea is stolen from him.

Lois Lane begins dating Ted “Pappy” Mailerway, an adventurous foreign correspondent and sometime-reporter for the Daily Planet, a relationship she later describes as a brief fling. [“The Biggest Game in Town,” Superman #277 (July, 1974)]

February 3-10: After the Joker makes an attempt to assassinate elderly J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, he becomes the most wanted man in America. Batman and Robin pursue the Joker across the country until they capture him. Note: J. Edgar Hoover is called G. Henry Mover in this story. Hoover dies of natural causes later this year on May 2, 1972. [“The Cross Country Crimes,” Batman #8 (December, 1941-January, 1942)]

February 21: Batman and Robin travel through time for the first time through hypnosis performed by Prof. Carter Nichols, visiting ancient Rome. [“It Happened in Rome,” Batman #24 (August-September, 1944)]

February 21-27: President Nixon makes an unprecedented visit to the People's Republic of China, meeting Chairman Mao Zedong.

March, 1972

March 2-5: The Joker and the Penguin team up against Batman and Robin. [“Knights of Knavery,” Batman #25 (October-November, 1944)]

March 12: Batman delivers a bat-themed crib to the Jones family for one-year-old Batman Jones, who grows up idolizing Batman and dressing like him. [“The Career of Batman Jones,” Batman #108 (June, 1957)]

March 25-26: Private detectives Hawke and Wrenn impersonate Batman and Robin in a scheme to get more business for their failing detective agency, and end up needing to be saved by the real Batman and Robin. [“Heroes by Proxy,” Batman #29 (June-July, 1945)]

April, 1972

April 29-30: Batman discovers the name of his parents' killer, Joe Chill, and spends much of the next month gathering evidence to put him away. [“The Origin of the Batman,” Batman #47 (June-July, 1948); “In the Beginning,” Untold Legend of the Batman #1 (July, 1980)]

May 12-14: Batman and Robin fight the Riddler a second time, after which he spends a few years locked up in jail. [“Crime's Puzzle Contest,” Detective Comics #142 (December, 1948); “Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler,” Batman #171 (May, 1965)]

May 15: Governor George Wallace of Alabama is shot at a rally in Maryland.

May 21-28: While on the trail of a crook named Mr. Phaeton, Batman discovers a settlement of mermen and mermaids and is briefly transformed into a Bat-Merman. [“Batman Under the Sea,” Batman #53 (June-July, 1949)]

May 25: Unable to prove his guilt, Batman forces a confrontation with Joe Chill and reveals that he is Bruce Wayne, whose parents Chill murdered nearly 14 years ago. Terrified, Chill runs off to tell his men that he caused Batman to be born, and the men angrily shoot him down before he can tell them his real name. [“The Origin of the Batman,” Batman #47 (June-July, 1948); “In the Beginning,” Untold Legend of the Batman #1 (July, 1980)]

May 31: Clark Kent graduates from Metropolis University. He and his friends Tommy Lee and Ducky Ginsberg celebrate with their graduating class, which numbers 1355. As Superman he spends the next two weeks equipping his secret laboratory in a cave on Mount Kadens, his Mountain of Solitude, before briefly returning to Smallville to gather his belongings. Note: The date of commencement, or graduation, is derived from the date of New York University's commencement date in 1972 and may not be accurate. [“Beyond Terminus,” Superman: The Secret Years #4 (May, 1985)]

June, 1972

Lois Lane breaks it off with Ted “Pappy” Mailerway when he leaves on a foreign assignment in Tanganyika. [“The Biggest Game in Town,” Superman #277 (July, 1974)]

At age 17, Jimmy Olsen graduates from Mapleton High School, where he is popular and a hero of the football team. Having completed high school, Jimmy is able to move to Metropolis permanently and work full-time at the Daily Planet in his copy boy job. [“The Dragon Delinquent,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #91 (March, 1966)]

June 6: The first international editions of the Daily Planet in France, Greece, Holland, Italy, and Japan are published. [Action Comics #211]

June 5-8: Batman and Robin battle international spy Count Florian once more, this time bringing him to justice. [“The Man with a Thousand Eyes,” World's Finest Comics #43 (December, 1949-January, 1950)]

June 9-10: While chasing crooks, Batman crashes the Batmobile, destroying it and injuring his leg, incapacitating him for a few weeks. During that time, Batman designs a new stylized Batmobile, which Robin builds under his direction. [“The Batmobile of 1950,” Detective Comics #156 (February, 1950)]

June 13: Clark Kent travels to Metropolis from Smallville via train, secretly clearing a cave-in in a train tunnel during the short journey. Upon reaching Metropolis, he immediately heads for the Daily Planet to ask for a job from Perry White, whom he met years earlier when Perry spoke at Smallville High, but Clark is rebuffed and told to come back the next day. Clark then goes apartment-hunting and obtains apartment 3D at 344 Clinton St. Later that day, Superman catches a gang of warehouse robbers, then prevents a disaster at a steel mill. Finally, Superman also announces that Metropolis is officially his chosen home, and the Daily Planet publishes this story under the headline: 'Superman to Live in Metropolis! Pledges to Use His Super-Powers for the Good of Mankind!' Note: This date is established as June 13 in Jimmy Olsen #70, which must take place on the 5th anniversary of this story (in 1977), not the 25th anniversary. [“Clark Kent's Career,” Action Comics #144 (May, 1950); “How Perry White Hired Clark Kent,” Superman #133 (November, 1959); “Superman's Three Mistakes,” Superman #105 (May, 1956); “Superman's First Exploit,” Superman #106 (July, 1956); “The Secret of Silver Kryptonite,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #70 (July, 1963)]

June 14: Clark Kent returns to the Daily Planet to ask Perry White for a job, but he is rebuffed again. Deciding to live on his savings for a while, he concentrates on fighting crime as Superman over the next few weeks before again seeking employment as Clark. Superman's first big case is stopping the Crime Juggernauts, a gang of mechanical specialists using modified construction equipment for crimes. Note: Although Superman was already in Metropolis while attending Metropolis University, these events must occur after his graduation but before he joins the Daily Planet, since he is referred to as Superman and can in no way be mistaken for the Superboy he was in 1968. [“The Confessions of Superman,” World's Finest Comics #65 (July-August, 1953); “How Perry White Hired Clark Kent,” Superman #133 (November, 1959)]

June 17: Five men are arrested while trying to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex, beginning the Watergate Scandal.

June 14-19: Robin battles Crazy-Quilt, now 64 years old after spending 26 years in prison since his capture by the Boy Commandos in 1946. [“Crazy-Quilt Comes Back,” Star Spangled Comics #123 (December, 1951); “Color Me Deadly,” Batman #316 (October, 1979)]

June 21: The new Batmobile is completed, and Batman reveals to Robin that he has healed from his leg injury. [“The Batmobile of 1950,” Detective Comics #156 (February, 1950)]

June 22-23: Superman battles the Toyman, the Prankster, and the Puzzler after those three villains escape from prison, but they each prove to be no match for the grown-up Superman. [“The Million Dollar Question,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #9 (December, 1955); “The Kid Who Unmasked Superman,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #115 (October, 1968)]

June 26: Millionaire Floyd Lawton becomes Deadshot, a tuxedo-wearing vigilante who is secretly building a criminal empire. He quickly gains fame and recognition while Batman and Robin are taking a short vacation. [“The Man who Replaced Batman,” Batman #59 (June-July, 1950)]

June 24-28: Since he's thus far been unable to get a job as a reporter, Clark takes a job as a taxi driver. On his first day, Clark's taxi is commandeered by a police officer to chase after a group of mobsters who kidnapped Perry White himself. As Superman, he stops the mobsters' car, saving both Perry and the police officer. Clark gives Perry a ride back to the Daily Planet building and reminds him of the reporter's job he wants, but Perry doesn't remember him, as he's too occupied with exposing the city's powerful crime syndicate. The next day, Clark applies for a job at the Metropolis Police Department and is given a special beat despite being thought to have bad eyesight. The next day, Clark discovers his beat is ticket collector at the City Aquarium. While there, a newspaper photographer is thrown into an octopus tank, and Clark is forced to jump in while still wearing his officer's uniform to save him, but he uses a quickly constructed dummy Clark to preserve his secret identity. The next day, Clark loses his police job because of his supposedly poor eyesight and becomes a door-to-door vacuum salesman. He visits Perry at his home to remind him of his promise, only to discover Perry is being held at gunpoint by a mobster, and he rescues Perry as Superman after creating a smokescreen with the vacuum cleaner. Superman uses chemicals to tag every mobster in town, then uses the mixture of those chemicals together to track down the location of the King of the Rackets, who has kidnapped Perry White. Clark writes up the story of the capture and sends it in while Perry is recuperating, and the Daily Planet publishes it. Perry finally remembers meeting Clark when he was a boy and grants him a job interview. Note: This story is a direct sequel to “Superboy Hunts for a Job,” Adventure Comics #152, which is referenced in this story. [“Clark Kent's Career,” Action Comics #144 (May, 1950); “How Perry White Hired Clark Kent,” Superman #133 (November, 1959)]

June 29: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

June 29-30: Perry White interviews Clark Kent and introduces him to staff reporter Lois Lane. After Clark claims to know every major Daily Planet headline for the past 30 years, Perry has him prove it, and Clark recites 500 headlines. After Lois asks Perry to give Clark a chance, Perry has Clark do a story about an old gorilla at the zoo in order to get rid of him. Clark uses a gorilla outfit to stage a mock battle between a younger gorilla with the old one in order to get a rousing story. But Perry still refuses to hire Clark and has him cover a carnival opening that night. When two kids are stranded at the top of a Ferris wheel, Superman secretly fixes it and then sits on another gondola behind the kids as Clark in order to write a first-hand account. Perry still won't hire him, thinking he was goofing off on a Ferris wheel, but Lois persuades him again to give Clark one last chance. So Perry asks Clark to get a picture of Superman with a piece of kryptonite captured from the Anti-Superman Gang to find out if it really affects him, but when he opens the lead-lined box, Clark faints from the radiation. He manages to cause his stomach to rumble so that Perry and Lois think he's starving for lack of money, and they take him to a restaurant, where Perry promises him a job if he can get the picture. Getting rid of the kryptonite and replacing it with a fake lookalike, Superman takes a picture of himself at super-speed being unaffected by it, causing Perry and Lois to think the kryptonite is fake. Perry tells Clark to visit him the next day. Note: Clark Kent has met Lois Lane at least three times earlier, twice when they were teenagers, and once a few months earlier, just before Lois began working for the Daily Planet. [“How Perry White Hired Clark Kent,” Superman #133 (November, 1959)]

July, 1972

June 29-July 2: Batman and Robin return to Gotham City from their vacation, only to learn that Deadshot has effectively replaced them as Gotham's premiere crime-fighters. But while Batman soon discovers that Deadshot's story doesn't hold up, he's unable to prove it or convince Commissioner James W. Gordon without looking jealous. [“The Man who Replaced Batman,” Batman #59 (June-July, 1950)]

July 4-5: Robin is recruited by Brane Taylor, the Batman of the year 3051, after Brane's son Ricky Taylor is injured and unable to act as that era's Robin. Together, Robin and the Batman of the future take down a space pirate named Yerxa, while Batman helps preserve the future Batman's secret identity. [“The Lost Legion of Space,” Batman #67 (October-November, 1951)]

July 18-19: After Superman temporarily loses his powers from red kryptonite exposure while on the deserted Bamboo Island with Lois Lane, he learns how much she dislikes him and prefers Clark Kent. He soon wins her heart with his self-sacrifice, and she falls in love with him, transferring her scorn to Clark. The two kiss for the first time. [“How Lois Lane Fell in Love With Superman,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #53 (November, 1964)]

July 22-23: Batman and Robin lose the original Batplane during a test for the United States Air Force, prompting them to begin designing and building a sleek new Batplane. [“The Birth of Batplane II,” Batman #61 (October-November, 1950)]

July 23-26: After Catwoman sustains a head injury while saving Batman's life, she remembers that she is really Selina Kyle, a former flight attendant for Speed Airlines who lost her memory and became a criminal. Batman recruits Catwoman to aid him and the police in bringing down gang leader Mister X before she retires to open a pet store. [“The Secret Life of the Catwoman,” Batman #62 (December, 1950-January, 1951)]

July 25-26: It – a strange being looking like a rainbow-colored spinning top – menaces Metropolis after being brought here from another dimension during an electrical storm. After evacuating the city, Superman sends it home with a bolt of lightning. Note: This is the only Superman adventure known to occur in exactly the same way on both Earth-1 and Earth-2. A few years later, Superman encounters a similar creature also referred to as It, which is from a different other-dimensional species. [“It,” Action Comics #162 (November, 1951); “Superman's Three Mistakes,” Superman #105 (May, 1956)]

July 27-28: Batman and Robin first battle Killer Moth, alias millionaire Cameron Van Cleer, who patterns himself after Batman by building a Mothcave and driving a Mothmobile. Note: Killer Moth's true name is never revealed, as Cameron Van Cleer is an alias. [“The Origin of Killer Moth,” Batman #63 (February-March, 1951)]

July 28-31: Clark Kent takes a few days before and after the weekend to visit Smallville before his assignment to cover Superman's appearance at the town's Homecoming Day that weekend for the Daily Planet. On Friday, Clark attends a televised reunion of a few of his former junior high classmates at Irma Sayres' house, and Superman helps undercover detective Al Peck (a former classmate) capture a criminal gang. On Saturday, Superman appears at Smallville's Homecoming Day and is alarmed to learn that a scientist named Prof. Snelling has purchased his old family home, requiring him to remove evidence that he lived there as a boy. On Sunday, Superman discovers the last will and testament of his father, Jor-El, near the landing place of his rocket outside Smallville. He recreates and then destroys a few of the inventions described in detail by Jor-El, including a dimension-traveler, a missile projector, and a nuclear fission tester. Using the last invention, Superman discovers that Earth will soon explode like Krypton once did, and evidence of this in the form of earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic activity begin to happen. After the world wonders where Superman is during the calamity, Superman uses a modified formula of Jor-El's to save Earth from destruction on Monday before returning to work as Clark on Tuesday. Note: Superman uses a laboratory headquarters on Mount Kadens in this story, but since this headquarters is quickly discovered, he later builds a meteor fortress in space and then in the center of the Earth before finally building his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic. [“Superboy's Class Reunion,” Superboy #15; “Superman's Secret Past,” Superman #90; “Jor-El's Last Will,” World's Finest Comics #69]

August, 1972

August 3: Superman is given honorary citizenship in all United Nations member nations for saving the world from destruction. [“The Story of Superman's Life,” Superman #146]

August 5: Jimmy Olsen (now 17 years old) gets his first scoop – a story on mobsters Turk Moraine and Big Mike Arnstein – and is promoted from copy boy to cub reporter at the Daily Planet after Superman saves his life. Superman then gives his young pal a signal watch. Note: This story is a correction of an earlier Jimmy Olsen story from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #36, which depicts Jimmy getting his cub reporter position and signal watch almost immediately after arriving in Metropolis. In fact, Jimmy spent two years as a copy boy before graduating to cub reporter. The date of June 15th for Jimmy's first scoop, as given in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #84, is unlikely; rather, the unassigned date from that issue of August 5th is more likely. [“The Ones That Almost Got Away,” Superman Family #218 (May, 1982); date from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #84]

August 6: Superman battles Vance Corlin, a man with temporary Kryptonian-like super-powers. His father, a disgraced Metropolis University professor named Dr. Charles Corlin, raised Vance on an island that duplicates the conditions of Krypton in order to make him a tool of revenge. After Superman shows Vance that Dr. Corlin was in the wrong, Vance tries to undo the damage he caused even as his temporary powers disappear, and he even destroys the equipment on the island that recreates Krypton's environment, preferring to live as a normal man. Note: This story is placed on Earth-1 because of the references to Superboy, Smallville, and Jonathan Kent, which are all Earth-1 concepts. [“The Artificial Superman,” World's Finest Comics #57 (March-April, 1952)]

August 7: Superman builds a fortress in space disguised as a spherical meteor to use as his headquarters, which he calls the Satellite of Solitude. Superman relocates his secret laboratory, originally located in a cave at Mount Kadens, to the Satellite of Solitude. [“Superman's Fortresses of Solitude,” Action Comics #261 (February, 1960)]

August 8-9: Superman, Batman and Robin team up for the first time against a smuggling ring using liquid kryptonite against Superman. Batman impersonates Superman for the first time. [“The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team,” World's Finest Comics #94 (May-June, 1958)]

August 13-17: While tracking down a nest of spies, Capt. Steve Trevor of U.S. Army Intelligence is shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. His plane crash-lands in the ocean near Paradise Island, and he is rescued by two Amazons: Princess Diana and her best friend Mala. Without telling her mother Queen Hippolyta, Diana brings the unconscious pilot to her laboratory outside the city, where she and Dr. Althea work day and night to save his life. Diana perfects her purple healing ray just in time to revive Steve back to life and brief consciousness even after he is pronounced clinically dead. Queen Hippolyta is alarmed when she finally learns that a man is on Paradise Island, but she's even more worried when she realizes her daughter may have fallen in love with the man. [“The Golden Age Secret Origin of Wonder Woman,” Wonder Woman #159 (January, 1966); “The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman,” DC Special Series #19 (Fall, 1979)]

August 14-15: Selina Kyle, furious over a newspaper story about how Batman triumphed over Catwoman, returns to crime as Catwoman. At the conclusion of this case, Catwoman goes missing for five years, and her absence has never been explained. [“The Crimes of the Catwoman,” Detective Comics #203 (January, 1954)]

August 25-26: When Clark Kent and Lois Lane are sent to Vietnam as medics in order to cover the Vietnam War, Superman protects the remaining U.S. troops from a giant, dull-witted, super-strong man known as King Cong. Later, Superman discovers that King Cong is really an American G.I. named Johnny Morely who has been transformed through the use of a super-drug created by a Vietnamese scientist named Dr. Han, and the effects of the super-drug wear off. Note: This story is placed years out of sequence because it can only take place during the direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which ends not long after in 1973. [“The Soldier of Steel,” Superman #216 (May, 1969)]

August 27-31: When Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne each go on vacations on the cruise-ship Varania, they accidentally learn each other's secret identities of Superman and Batman when forced to share a room. Vowing to keep each other's identities a secret, Superman and Batman team up to capture John Smilter, an asbestos-suited bandit who stole the Fabian diamonds. [“The Mightiest Team in the World,” Superman #76 (May-June, 1952)]

August 30-31: The goddess Aphrodite appears to Queen Hippolyta to tell her that she must send the greatest of the Amazons to bring Capt. Steve Trevor back to America, where she will remain to fight evil and injustice everywhere. Queen Hippolyta then holds a tournament to choose the greatest Amazon fairly, but she forbids her daughter Princess Diana from participating. On the day of the tournament, all contestants except Mala and a masked Amazon are left, and the contest between the two finalists is decided in favor of the masked Amazon in the bullets and bracelets competition. The masked Amazon unmasks to reveal that the champion is Princess Diana. Feeling a mixture of pride and sadness, Queen Hippolyta presents her daughter with a costume to wear in America and the magic lasso, which enables her to control anyone bound by it, and the Amazons proclaim Diana as Wonder Woman. [“The Golden Age Secret Origin of Wonder Woman,” Wonder Woman #159 (January, 1966); “The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman,” DC Special Series #19 (Fall, 1979)]

September, 1972

Animal Man has an adventure. [When Trouble Comes A Calling]

Lana Lang comes to Metropolis to find work at the Daily Planet and is hired by Perry White. She soon gets another job with the Federal Syndicate news service. [Superman #78]

Garfield Logan contracts a rare disease in Africa. His father cures him but alters the boy's genetic structure, turning him green and giving him powers.

Superman battles a telepathic shapeshifter sent to this time from the far future that is able to take on the properties of anything it resembles. When it takes on Superman's form, Superman is only able to destroy it by luring it to a nuclear testing ground as an atomic bomb explodes. [“The Thing from 40,000 A.D.,” Superman #87]

September 5: 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, are killed by eight members of an Arab terrorist group; five guerillas and one policeman are also killed.

September 8: Jefferson Pierce (the future Black Lightning) wins his first gold medal for the Decathlon race at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany. Around this time, Jefferson Pierce marries Lynn Stewart; their marriage is a rocky one and doesn't last long.

October, 1972

Capturing a gang of pirates using Starfish Island as a base, Oliver Queen returns to Star City after being stranded on Starfish Island for nine months. The incident inspires him to call himself the Green Arrow when questioned by police, though he doesn't yet decide to become a crime-fighter. [“The Green Arrow's First Case,” Adventure Comics #256 (January, 1959); Green Arrow, DC Super Stars #17 (November-December, 1977)]

October 2-6: Batman and Robin battle the Red Hood and manage to solve the mystery of his secret identity with the help of a State University criminology class. The Red Hood is revealed as the Joker, whose secret origin is finally told. [“The Man Behind the Red Hood,” Detective Comics #168 (February, 1951)]

Superman and Batman and Robin are reunited for the first time since August; they begin teaming up regularly from this point on. [“Batman – Double for Superman,” World's Finest Comics #71]

Superman meets Dan Delta, the toughest private detective in Metropolis, who also bears a striking resemblance to Superman. Note: Dan Delta is actually Slam Bradley using a pseudonym for an unknown reason. At some point after this story, Slam Bradley resumes his private investigation practice in Gotham City under his original name, as seen in Detective Comics #500. [“Superman's Last Hour,” Superman #92 (September, 1954)]

October 31: Dressing up as Robin Hood for a Halloween costume ball, Oliver Queen stops a gang of robbers and, finding it more thrilling than the dull life as a businessman, decides to continue fighting crime in the modified Robin Hood costume under the name of the Green Arrow. Inspired by the Batman's Bat-Cave and Batmobile, Green Arrow begins building his own Arrowcave beneath his mansion and begins developing his Arrowcar, as well as his many trick arrows. Green Arrow starts regularly patrolling Star City around this time, though most of his cases in these early months merely involve petty crimes. Note: Although there are very few accounts of this time period, Green Arrow originally operated solo for a few months before taking on Speedy as his crime-fighting partner. [“Green Arrow: Unfinished Business, Chapter 1: At the Beginning”]

November, 1972

November 28-30: Lex Luthor creates the Phantom Superman, an artificial gray-colored duplicate of Superman with all his abilities that needs to be recharged with atomic energy from time to time. Superman defeats and destroys the duplicate. [“The Phantom Superman,” Action Comics #199]

December, 1972

Eel O'Brian goes into semi-retirement as Plastic Man after his last case against the Wizard (Earth-1 version). Note: This is the last issue of the Quality Comics series to feature a new story; the rest of the series until the last issue (#67) feature only reprints. [Plastic Man #52]

December 7-9: Four super-powered survivors from the peaceful planet Blanth arrive on Earth, but after Superman discovers the men are a danger to the world, he finds another planet for them to live on. [“The Men Without a World,” Superman #94]

December 23-24: Batman uses the Super-Signal (based on the Bat-Signal but with a Superman insignia) for the first time to summon Superman to Gotham City. Superman and Batman battle a space-creature with various powers, including the ability to change its shape, that proves to be a child. [“The Contest of Heroes,” World's Finest Comics #74]

December 25: The Christmas bombing of North Vietnam causes widespread criticism of the U.S. and President Nixon.

1973

January, 1973

January 1: Superman becomes a medical doctor (Dr. Superman) in order to operate on a blind girl named Alice Norton. [“The Girl Who Didn't Believe in Superman,” Superman #96]

January 27: The Vietnam War ends with the signing of peace pacts.

January 24-31: To launch three new international editions of the Daily Planet, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are temporarily assigned as the managing editors of the Bombay, Paris, and London editions of the Daily Planet for one week. Note: The Paris Daily Planet was already launched on June 6, 1972, but this may be part of a relaunching. [“The International Daily Planet,” Action Comics #203]

February, 1973

Arthur Curry has his first public case as Aquaman. Note: Aquaman has been active for years by this time as Aquaboy, but it is at this point that he becomes known to the world as a hero. [Adventure Comics #215]

February 26-27: Batman gains Kryptonian-like super-powers for 24 hours, during which time Superman is weakened by kryptonite and is forced to travel by driving the original Supermobile, which is actually a modified Batmobile. [“The Super Bat-Man,” World's Finest Comics #77]

March, 1973

An accident leads George Szerro to only be able to handle cold temperatures. He becomes Mister Zero.

April, 1973

April 7-10: Superman battles Mister K, an unnamed human crook claiming to be from Krypton who was really given temporary Kryptonian-type super-powers (along with a kryptonite immunity) for three days by criminal scientist “Doc” Winters. Note: The name of “Mister K” is never actually used in the story. [“The Man Who Was Mightier than Superman,” Action Comics #209 (October, 1955)]

April 30: President Nixon accepts responsibility but not blame for the Watergate Scandal, accepting the resignations of H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman as well as firing John W. Dean III as counsel.

Jonathan Ross, son of Pete and Susan (who dies while Jon is very young) Ross, is born in Smallville.

May 7: Lois Lane temporarily gains super-strength (although she does not realize it) when Superman uses an alien ray on her to outwit a group of tiny green aliens from the planet Thura. [“The Midget Menace,” Superman #102]

May 19: The International World's Fair (originally known as the Exposition of World Industries until Superman asked for a name change to thwart Mr. Mxyzptlk) in Metropolis opens. Note: As with most world fairs, this one runs until the fall. [“The Revenge of Mr. Mxyztplk,” Superman #103]

May 30-31: A super-powered family of six from the planet Skar, led by Vitor Vall, briefly settle on Earth while under the false belief that Superman is their lost cousin; Superman finds the cousin (his exact double) and reunites the family, who leaves Earth. [“The Super-Family from Outer Space,” Superman #104 (March, 1956)]

June, 1973

June 1: A military junta abolishes the monarchy in Greece and proclaims the nation a republic.

June 3: Superman destroys the Daily Planet building and several other structures after discovering that they have been transformed by an alien civilization into bombs as part of a plan to invade Earth, a plot already uncovered by elderly billionaire Ebeneezer Walker. Superman rebuilds an exact copy of the Daily Planet building later that day. [“Superman, Super-Destroyer,” Action Comics #214]

June 4: Superman is summoned to the year 2956 A.D. by Craig King, the Superman of the future, to briefly take his place after King is injured. [“The Superman of Tomorrow,” Action Comics #215 (April, 1956)]

June 20: While using the monitor in his Satellite of Solitude in outer space, Superman is attacked by an evil space cloud-intelligence called Urko the Terrible, who hates all other forms of life and is able to animate objects. When he's unable to destroy Superman, he attempts to destroy the Earth until Superman stops him by propelling a small sun at Urko, consuming him. Superman realizes that outer space is a poor location for his fortress. [“Superman's Fortresses of Solitude,” Action Comics #261 (February, 1960)]

June 25: Superman relocates his meteor fortress to the center of the Earth, only to be attacked by flame-people who think him to be an invader. After he saves them from being destroyed by water, they ask him to stay, but Superman realizes the center of the Earth isn't as peaceful as he'd like, and continues his search for a better location for his fortress. [“Superman's Fortresses of Solitude,” Action Comics #261 (February, 1960)]

June 28: Superman discovers a rocket ship from Krypton containing war weapons that arrives on Earth by accident after Jor-El sent it into space decades ago. He places the weapons and ship within the Earth's molten core. [“The Super-Menace of Metropolis,” Action Comics #216]

July, 1973

Kathy Kane becomes Batwoman. [Detective Comics #233]

July 3: Discovering a journal written by his father Jor-El and a few films from the last days of Krypton in a preserved Kryptonian laboratory, Superman learns that Jor-El briefly possessed super-powers after simulating an Earthlike environment on Krypton. [“The First Superman of Krypton,” Action Comics #223; “The Superman Calendar,” Action Comics #212]

July 7-9: Clark Kent (Superman) becomes the guardian of Baby Bliss, a toddler who temporarily gains super-powers from eating Kryptonian food from a canister that fell from Kal-El's ship years ago. After the toddler's super-powers wear off, Superman returns him to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Bliss. [“The Amazing Super-Baby,” Action Comics #217]

July 12: Lex Luthor creates a suit of electronic armor with a unique alloy which is powered by Superman's own energy, but which is also susceptible to Superman's kryptonite weakness. [“The Super-Outlaw of Metropolis,” Superman #106]

July 13-19: Superman meets Super-Ape, a young ape from Krypton able to speak who has acted as protector of his section of Africa for years. He reunites Super-Ape on another planet with the three other Kryptonian apes sent to other worlds before Krypton's destruction. [“The Super-Ape from Krypton,” Action Comics #218]

August, 1973

August 2-3: Perry White, Jr., just out of college at age 21, begins interning at the Daily Planet. [“Perry White, Jr., Demon Reporter,” Superman #108]

August 19-20: Superman battles the Petrified Spaceman, who possesses the ability to manifest several super-powers. After discovering the Spaceman is a lost traveler from the Ice World, Superman returns him to his home planet, which he left thousands of years ago. [“The Invulnerable Enemy,” Action Comics #226]

August 26: Superman is split into two identical beings by the U.S. government's experimental Q-bomb, which is 100 times more powerful than an atomic bomb, and they keep this fact a secret. After the two Supermen discover that each lacks one different super-vision power that the other has, they refer to each other by the names Superman-X (who lacks telescopic vision) and Superman-T (who lacks x-ray vision). Superman-T dies when he sacrifices his life to deflect a huge kryptonite meteor heading for Earth, which causes Superman-X to regain telescopic vision. No one but Superman ever knows of the brief existence of the other Superman. [“The Duplicate Superman,” Action Comics #222 (November, 1956)]

August 30-31: After experiencing a plane accident in the remote Arctic wilderness as a passenger, Superman decides to build his Fortress of Solitude there. After testing the door, he installs it and completes the construction of the Fortress. He fills it with his super-weapons, trophies, and mementos kept in secret locations all over the world. Note: Since Superman is not seen using the Fortress of Solitude before 1974, it is reasonable to assume that he did not build it until at least a few months rather than years before that first appearance. Prior to this story, he used Mount Kadens as a temporary fortress, then built a circular fortress in space, then transported that fortress to the center of the earth, taking place over the last few months. Over the next few months, Superman begins building his Interplanetary Zoo by bringing alien animals from other planets to his Fortress. [“Tales of Green Kryptonite No. 2,” Superman #176; “The Baffling Block of Metropolis,” Action Comics #409; Action Comics #395]

September, 1973

When four adventurers (Prof Haley, Red Ryan, Ace Morgan, and Rocky Davis) survive a plane crash that should have killed them, they decide that they are “living on borrowed time” and band together to form the Challengers of the Unknown, a group of daredevils who take on risky assignments. [Showcase #6]

September 11-12: Superman and his younger self Superboy switch places for two days after a criminal scientist fired a ray at Superboy in the past. Note: Although Superman's activities in Smallville in the past are shown, Superboy's adventure in the present has never been told. [“Superboy's Switch in Time,” Superboy #53 (December, 1956)]

September 28-29: Superman builds Superman Island to house a vault full of kryptonite meteors for a scientist's ill-fated attempt to use kryptonite as an energy source. [“The Secret of Superman Island,” Action Comics #224 (January, 1957)]

October 20: President Nixon fires special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus, while Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson resigns.

October 23

Barry Allen becomes the Flash. [Showcase #4]

The world briefly believes that Superman actually died two years earlier while saving the Earth and was replaced by a robot, until Superman reappears to clear up the deception. [“The Death of Superman,” Action Comics #225]

October 30-31: Lois Lane briefly gains super-strength for a second time and assists Superman. [“The Three Men of Steel,” Superman #112]

November, 1973

The Flash first battles Captain Cold. [Showcase #8]

November 1: After ingesting super-power pills created by Jor-El, Superman temporarily loses his super-powers due to kryptonite exposure, while Batman and Robin both gain Kryptonian super-powers. They defeat Elton Craig, a criminal who has become a super-thief by also ingesting those pills. [“The Reversed Heroes,” World's Finest Comics #87 (March-April, 1957).]

November 5: Superman's vision powers go awry, forcing him to wear lead glasses at times over the next three weeks. [“The Man with the Triple X-ray Eyes,” Action Comics #227 (April, 1957).]

November 24: Superman burns an entire uninhabited planet to ash with his heat vision in order to get rid of the extra x-ray energy in his body. [“The Man with the Triple X-ray Eyes,” Action Comics #227 (April, 1957).]

December, 1973

Travis Morgan meets Machiste. [Warlord #2]

December 2-4: Lex Luthor and the Joker team up for the first time against Superman and Batman. [“Superman's and Batman's Greatest Foes,” World's Finest Comics #88 (May-June, 1957).]

December 9-14: Superman's super-hearing is intensified, forcing him to spend several days in isolation. At the same time, Superman begins having hallucinations because of a side effect of Jimmy Olsen's signal watch. [“The Soundproof Superman,” Superman #114 (July, 1957); “The Super-Hallucinations,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #22 (August, 1957).]

December 16-17: After a piece of ancient Atlantis rises to the surface, its properties temporarily grant normal people super-powers and cause Superman's powers to be multiplied a thousandfold, forcing him to stop using them altogether. [“Superman Loses His Powers,” Action Comics #230 (July, 1957).]

December 24-27: Superman, Batman and Robin work with the international Club of Heroes. [“The Club of Heroes,” World's Finest Comics #89 (July-August, 1957).]

December 28: Superman intentionally switches places for three hours with his younger self from a time between his Superbaby and Superboy days, all to provide assistance to a couple of midget performers during a stage play called “The Super-Rescue of Lois Lane, Girl Reporter.” [“The Midget Superman,” Superman #115 (August, 1957)]

1974

Unspecified month in 1974

Rip Hunter and his crew (Jeff Smith, Bonnie Baxter, and Corky Baxter), after a time travel trip from 1965, are stranded in the year 1974 when Dr. Wilfred Doome of Earth-2 steals his Time Sphere's engine. While building a new engine, Rip and his allies learn that history never records them returning to their native time. [“DC Universe: 1943: The Space-Time Gambit, Book 2, Chapter 2: To Save the Past”]

Jefferson Pierce (the future Black Lightning) and his wife Lynn Stewart are divorced.

Maxine Baker is born to Buddy Baker (Animal Man) and his wife Ellen Baker. Maxine is their second child, as their son Cliff was born in 1970.

January, 1974

January 2-7: Superman gains the new super-power to create a smaller version of himself that has all his powers, and he spends days trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Finally, the smaller Superman sacrifices itself to save Superman from green kryptonite, and the power disappears. [“Superman's New Power,” Superman #125 (November, 1958).]

January 9: An evolution accelerator invented by Prof. Phineas Potter causes Jimmy Olsen to become the most intelligent man in the world for 12 hours, during which time he saves the Earth. [“The Super-Brain of Jimmy Olsen,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #22 (August, 1957).]

January 17-20: 14-year-old Johnny Kirk lands on Earth once more and is adopted by Superman, becoming Superman, Junior; the two move to Smallville under assumed names, but Superman's powers begin to disappear. Johnny, knowing his powers have an adverse effect on Superman, sacrifices them to give him those powers back. Johnny stays in Smallville while Superman returns to Metropolis. At the same time, Earth passes through a cloud of kryptonite dust, temporarily neutralizing Superman's powers. [“The Story of Superman, Junior,” Action Comics #232 (September, 1957); “The Mechanized Superman,” Superman #116 (September, 1957).]

January 23: Jimmy Olsen becomes the king of Vumania, an abandoned island kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean. Note: This story takes place during Chinese New Year. [“Sir Jimmy Olsen, Knight of Metropolis,” Action Comics #231 (August, 1957).]

February, 1974

From a computer, Travis Morgan and Tara learn the origins of Skartaris. [Warlord #5]

February 5

Perry White celebrates his 25th anniversary since beginning work at the Daily Planet. Note: This means Perry White was hired on February 5, 1949, after having made a name for himself at the Gotham Gazette. [“The Most Amazing Camera in the World,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #34 (January, 1959); “Clark Kent, Man of Mystery,” Superman #117 (November, 1957).]

Patty Hearst, granddaughter of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

February 17: Superman, Batman, and Robin are trapped and placed in suspended animation, sleeping for nearly 1,000 years until the year 2957, where they battle the evil Rohtul, descendant of Lex Luthor, before returning to the present in a time machine before they were trapped. [“The Three Super Sleepers,” World's Finest Comics #91 (November-December, 1957).]

April, 1974

The Green Arrows of the World, international archers inspired by the American Green Arrow, have their first (and only) meeting in Star City.

Betty Kane becomes Bat-Girl.

April 2: Superman and Lois Lane are nearly wed after a whirlwind romance when Jimmy Olsen uses the power of subliminal suggestion to make Superman want nothing more than to wed Lois, but Jimmy tricks Lois into calling off the ceremony just as the effect wears off Superman. [“Super-Courtship of Lois Lane,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #4 (September-October, 1958).]

April 11

Kara Zor-El is sent in a rocket-ship from Argo City to Earth by her parents, Zor-El and Allura. After Kara's departure, Zor-El and Allura manage to escape into the Survival Zone. Note: The date of April 11 is given in the 1976 Super DC Calendar as when Supergirl arrived on Earth, but since we know that actually happened on May 18, the April 11 date is likely when she left Argo City.

The rocket-ship containing Kara Zor-El of Argo City passes by the asteroid where Biron the horse (formerly a centaur) has been exiled for 3000 years, freeing him. He follows the rocket to Earth and watches as she becomes Supergirl, hoping to meet her someday. Until then, he poses as an ordinary horse on Earth. [“The Secret Origin of Supergirl's Super-Horse,” Action Comics #293 (October, 1962).]

April 19-20: Superman meets King Krypton, a Kryptonian scientist (whose name is never revealed) who changed himself into a gorilla and also escaped Krypton's destruction, gaining super-powers by the time he reached Earth. King Krypton dies from green kryptonite radiation. [“The Super-Gorilla from Krypton,” Action Comics #238 (March, 1958).]

May, 1974

May 1-4: A magic totem grants Jimmy Olsen three wishes. The first is to create a female counterpart of Superman called Super-Girl, who becomes Superman's partner but dies sacrificing herself to save him. Superman then briefly loses his powers after criminals make the second wish. Finally, Superman travels back in time to Krypton and meets his parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, helping them defeat the criminal Kil-Lor and even witnessing his parents become engaged. [“The Girl of Steel,” Superman #123 (August, 1958).]

May 6: Adam Strange's very first trip to Rann. [Showcase #17]

May 6-7: Futureman (XL-49) from the 30th century travels back in time to woo Lois Lane and propose to her (although his real plan is to make Superman fall in love with her and marry her). She accepts after realizing Superman will never propose (again), but just as they are about to travel to the 30th century in a time bubble, Superman kisses her passionately, and she decides to call off the wedding and remain in the twentieth century. [“The Bride of Futureman,” Superman #121 (May, 1958).]

May 15: A magical beam causes Lois Lane and Lana Lang to merge into one person named Lana Lane, to whom Superman is briefly engaged until he safely splits them apart again, and they lose all memory of the event. [“Superman's Romance with Lana Lane,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #41 (May, 1963).]

May 18: Supergirl, Superman's 15-year-old cousin Kara Zor-El, arrives on Earth. Superman keeps her existence a secret, gives her the name of Linda Lee, and places her in Midvale Orphanage. Note: Supergirl spends most of her free time over the next few months learning all she can about Earth and perfecting her knowledge of the English language so she can blend in well on Earth. [“The Supergirl from Krypton,” Action Comics #252 (May, 1959).]

May 20-22: The Daily Planet staff travel to Hollywood to play themselves in scenes from a new movie by Mammoth Studios about Superman called The Life of Superman, but while Perry White, Clark Kent, and Jimmy Olsen play themselves, Lois Lane is replaced by an actress. Note: The movie in question is known by a few names before the final name is settled on, including “The Exploits of Superman” and “The 1957 Superman Story.” The movie later debuts on August 23, 1974. [“Lois Lane in Hollywood,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #2 (May-June, 1958); “The Lady-Killer from Metropolis,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #33 (December, 1958).]

May 26: Superman briefly takes on a new masked partner called Powerman, who turns out to be a robot. [“The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team,” World's Finest Comics #94 (May-June, 1958).]

June 2-4: Pvt. Jones at Camp Metropolis briefly gains super-powers and becomes the Super-Sergeant after being affected by a super-helmet Superman was testing for the U.S. Army, but he soon loses his powers. [“The Super-Sergeant,” Superman #122 (July, 1958).]

June 6-7: Batman is briefly given super-powers by aliens who wanted to see who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman. [“The Battle of the Super-Heroes,” World's Finest Comics #95 (July-August, 1958).]

June 11

Supergirl meets Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad, who take her back to the 30th century to try out for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Unfortunately, while there Supergirl is exposed to red kryptonite and is aged to a grown woman, disqualifying her for Legion membership. Note: This story takes place on the first day of Superman Week, which begins with Superman Day on June 11. [“The Three Super-Heroes,” Action Comics #267 (August, 1960).]

June 17: Superman's adoption of Jimmy Olsen ends. Superman reignites a star he created a year ago called Superman's Sun, saving the civilization that lives in that star system, composed of billions of survivors from doomed planets. [“The Son of Superman,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #30 (August, 1958).]

June 22: After suffering writer's block while trying to write a novel, Jimmy Olsen “writes” a novel about himself and Superman called The Super Mystery, which will be published in one year; in reality, Superman brings Jimmy to one year in the future to copy the published novel, effectively creating a time loop paradox. [“The Superman Book that Couldn't Be Finished,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #29 (June, 1958).]

June 23-26: Krypto the Superdog returns to Earth, having aged quite a bit, and becomes Jimmy Olsen's pet. Krypto drinks from a fountain of youth and regains his youth once more before returning to space. [“Jimmy Olsen's Super Pet,” #29 (June, 1958).]

July, 1974

June 27-July 4: Superman and Lois Lane are trapped for one week on a tropical island surrounded by green kryptonite dust. Superman reveals his identity as Clark Kent and proposes, but on the day they are to be wed by a tribal chief, the kryptonite cloud disappears, allowing them to escape. Superman then claims that he needed to keep Lois away from Metropolis for one week during the trial of a criminal gang that she exposed. [“Mrs. Superman,” Superman #124 (September, 1958).]

July 4-5: Hyper-Man of Oceania, a duplicate of Superman, visits Earth and impersonates Clark Kent in order to keep Superman's secret identity from being exposed to Lois Lane. Superman visits Oceania with Hyper-Man but intentionally exposes his secret identity of Chester King to his fellow television reporter, Lydia Long (a double of Lois Lane), in order to allow the hero of Oceania to marry. The reason Superman does so is because he realizes Hyper-Man is dying from being fatally poisoned by radiation and has only one year to live, so he might as well not put off getting married any longer. [“The Superman from Outer Space,” Action Comics #265 (June, 1960).]

July 7-8: Clark Kent and Lois Lane are among the first civilians to travel into space on the experimental rocket ship the Columbus, which travels 10,000 miles from Earth, breaking all rocket records. They witness Brainiac shrink nine Earth cities, including Paris, Rome, London, New York City, and Metropolis, placing them in bottles on his ship to later be restored to full size on his planet of Colu. Superman battles Brainiac and recovers the bottle-city of Kandor from him after discovering its existence. [“The Super-Duel in Space,” Action Comics #242 (July, 1958).]

July 9-10: After saving an alien woman who claims to be a descendant of Circe, Superman is briefly given the head and paws of a lion through an evolution serum after spurning her offer of marriage. [“The Lady and the Lion,” Action Comics #243 (August, 1958).]

July 11: Lois Lane visits Kandor for the first time, then under false pretenses she is briefly married to Zak-Kul, a renegade scientist of Kandor posing as Superman. [“The Shrinking Superman,” Action Comics #245 (October, 1958).]

July 11: On the planet Oceania, Chester King (Hyper-Man) and Lydia Long are married. [“The Superman from Outer Space,” Action Comics #265 (June, 1960).]

Several heroes – the Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Superman, Batman, Robin, Roy Raymond, the Blackhawks, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Vigilante, Robotman, Congo Bill, Congorilla, Plastic Man, Rex the Wonder Dog, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, as well as test pilot Hal Jordan – unite against Commander Blanx and his white Martian invaders; they agree to form a team at some point in the future. [“The Origin of the Justice League, Minus One,” Justice League of America #144 (July, 1977).]

Rip Hunter and his crew (Jeff Smith, Bonnie Baxter, and Corky Baxter), having built a new engine for the Time Sphere, fight off the Blackhawks, Plastic Man, and Jimmy Olsen, each group mistakenly thinking they're enemies. After this incident, the Time Masters leave this time for a short trip to the Civil War, then travel to the year 12 million A.D., where they are enslaved by the Sunset Lords, who use their time travel knowledge to attempt to take over the 20th century. After the Challengers of the Unknown, Swamp Thing, and Deadman rescue them, they choose to live in the Challengers' time of 1982 instead of returning to either 1974 or their native time of 1965. [“DC Universe: 1943: The Space-Time Gambit, Book 2, Chapter 2: To Save the Past”; “The War at Time's End,” Challengers of the Unknown #86 (April-May, 1978); “Twelve Million Years to Twilight,” Challengers of the Unknown #87 (June-July, 1978)]

July 27: Luthor recreates Bizarro #1, who creates for himself a Bizarro-Lois Lane and battles Superman before leaving for outer space in search of a new home. [“The Battle with Bizarro,” Action Comics #254 (July, 1959); “The Bride of Bizarro,” Action Comics #255 (August, 1959).]

July 27-29: John Corben becomes the first Metallo and fights Superman, then dies. [“The Menace of Metallo,” Action Comics #252 (May, 1959).]

July 30-31: Lana Lang decides to quit being the Girl Atlas after her muscles bulk up from constant use over the last two months. Superman gives her a serum that takes away her powers and gives her back her girlish figure. [“The Girl Atlas,” Superman's Pal, Lois Lane #12 (October, 1959).]

August, 1974

The Flash first battles Gorilla Grodd, then the Pied Piper. [The Flash #106]

July 29-August 2: Superman, Batman, and Robin battle the Moonman, an astronaut who gains powers and becomes evil under a full moon. [“The Menace of the Moonman,” World's Finest Comics #98 (December, 1958).]

August 2-3: Superman is reunited with Lori Lemaris and proposes to her again, but she becomes injured. He searches the worlds for a cure and finds Ronal, a brilliant mer-man doctor from another planet who cures her as he waits for news of her condition. [“Superman's Mermaid Sweetheart,” Superman #135 (February, 1960).]

August 3-5: Supergirl makes her first public appearance in disguise as the adult super-heroine Mighty Maid as part of Superman's plan to defeat an alien armada. Note: This story takes place sometime before Supergirl turns 16 this year. [“Mighty Maid,” Action Comics #260 (January, 1960).]

August 8-9: President Richard M. Nixon announces his resignation. He is succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.

August 18: Jimmy Olsen visits Kandor for the first time, but he is secretly replaced by a Kandorian named El Gar Kur, who battles Superman while posing as Jimmy and tries to destroy Kandor before he is arrested. [“The War Between Superman and Jimmy Olsen,” Action Comics #253 (June, 1959).]

September, 1974

September 19: Jimmy Olsen briefly gains invulnerability after bathing in an underground stream rumored to be a branch of the fabled river Styx. [“Superman's Pal of Steel,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #34 (January, 1959).]

September 20: A chimpanzee named Toto is bombarded with radiation from uranium and kryptonite and is enlarged to become Titano the Super-Ape; after a battle, Superman puts him into the prehistoric past. [“Titano the Super-Ape,” Superman #127 (February, 1959).]

September 23-24: Superman, Batman, and Robin battle a criminal scientist called the Atom-Master, who can create images using a brain-enhancing device. [“The Menace of the Atom-Master,” World's Finest Comics #101 (May, 1959).]

October, 1974

Aquaman talks about his past to some Navy men (origin). [Adventure Comics #260]

Pamela Isley poisoned for the first time by Prof. LeGrande. [World's Finest Comics #252]

October 9-10: Jimmy Olsen wears a costume as Elastic Lad for the first time when he temporarily regains his powers. [“The Elastic Lad of Metropolis,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #37 (June, 1959).]

October 11: A Kryptonian caveman trapped in a meteor for centuries lands on Earth and battles Superman, Batman, and Robin before finally dying from centuries-long exposure to cosmic rays. [“The Caveman from Krypton,” World's Finest Comics #102 (June, 1959).]

October 16: Jimmy Olsen meets the President of the United States (Gerald Ford). [“The M.C. of the Midnight Scare Theater,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #38 (July, 1959).]

October 21: J'onn J'onzz's existence is revealed to the world. [Detective Comics #271]

October 30: Supergirl time-travels to the 21st century, where she secretly helps an orphaned boy named Tommy at the Interplanetary Orphanage, not knowing he would grow up to be Col. Tommy Tomorrow of the Space Planeteers. [“Supergirl Visits the 21st Century,” Action Comics #255 (August, 1959).]

November, 1974

Aquaman meets Lisa Morel (first Aquagirl). [Adventure Comics #266]

Green Arrow and Aquaman team up to track the Wizard and Shark Norton. [Adventure Comics #267]

November 6: Traveling through space in an experimental rocket, Jimmy Olsen lands on the planet Zolium, where he briefly becomes Super-Lad until Superman brings him back to Earth. [“The Super-Lad of Space,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #39 (September, 1959).]

November 9: The JLA is officially formed – with charter members Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Superman & Batman – when extraterrestrials from Appellax invade Earth. [Justice League of America #9]

November 15: Jimmy Olsen meets Supergirl while he is blinded, and he refuses to believe that she is who she says she is. [“Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl's Pal,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #40 (October, 1959).]

November 16: Superman and Superboy switch places in time due to an accident with a time telescope. Note: While Superman's visit in Smallville in the past is depicted, Superboy's adventure in the present is not told. [“The First Superman Robot,” Adventure Comics #265 (October, 1959).]

November 15-20: Van-Zee, a Kandorian scientist who is a double for Superman, is accidentally enlarged, falls in love with Lois Lane and is rejected but finds love in her look-a-like, Sylvia DeWitt, to whom he gives super-powers. They are married and go to live on an other-dimensional Venus, where five years passes from their perspective, even though only one month passes in real-time. [“The Super-Family of Steel,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #15 (February, 1960).]

November 15-21: While in Hawaii, Lois Lane's legs are crushed while skindiving, even though she is saved by Aquaman. A surgeon named Dr. Hanson performs an experimental surgery on Lois, giving her mermaid fins in place of legs. Aquaman gives her a tour of the seven seas, while Lois becomes an unofficial queen of the sea. Since Lois is miserable as a mermaid, Superman studies every medical textbook available at super-speed and becomes a doctor by passing all required exams, then operates on Lois, restoring her legs to normal. [“The Mermaid from Metropolis,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #12 (October, 1959).]

November 29: On his 20th birthday, Jimmy Olsen becomes Super-Jimmy when he is given temporary super-powers by Prof. Potter, but it causes Superman to concurrently lose his powers, so Super-Jimmy finds a way to restore Superman's powers within eight hours before the change is irreversible. [“The Super Life of Jimmy Olsen,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #50 (January, 1961)]

December, 1974

December 5: Supergirl travels back into the past for the first time, visiting a prehistoric age where she saves a tribe from a fire-breathing sea serpent. [“The Cave-Girl of Steel,” Action Comics #259 (December, 1959).]

December 12-15: Superman brings Lois Lane back to her hometown of Pittsdale to visit her parents and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Pittsdale Star, the town newspaper. While there, a series of misunderstandings end up in a wedding ceremony for Superman and Lois, which is only called off thanks to help from Lois' sister Lucy Lane. [“Introducing Lois Lane's Parents,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #13 (November, 1959).]

December 16: Van-Zee and his wife Sylvia return to Earth after one month from an other-dimensional Venus, where five years passed from their point of view, along with their two children, Lyle-Zee and Lita Van-Zee. The family goes to live in Kandor. [“The Super-Family of Steel,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #15 (February, 1960).]

December 5-17: Superman joins the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of general by the time he is honorably discharged. [“Superman Joins the Army,” Superman #133 (November, 1959).]

1975

January, 1975

Ralph Dibny becomes the Elongated Man. [The Flash #112]

The Flash first battles the Trickster. [The Flash #113]

Aquaman battles the Human Flying Fish. [Adventure Comics #272]

January 1: John N. Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, and John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty for the Watergate cover-up. They are later sentenced to 30 months to eight years in jail.

December 31-January 2: A scientist from Kandor named Kull-Ex tricks Superman into switching places with him, enabling Kull-Ex to impersonate Superman and do much to damage his reputation in order to gain revenge on the son of Jor-El for a perceived theft from his father, Zell-Ex. After Superman proves that Jor-El never stole any idea from Zell-Ex, the scientist returns to Kandor, vowing to devote the rest of his life to scientific research. Note: Although this is not explained in the story, Kull-Ex probably spends a small amount of time incarcerated in the Phantom Zone after going to trial in Kandor for his crimes. [“The Super-Outlaw from Krypton,” Superman #134 (January, 1960).]

January 3: Jimmy Olsen discovers the genuine genie lamp used by Aladdin and temporarily becomes a genie himself, switching places with Abdul the real genie, until he manages to outsmart him and switch back. [“Jimmy the Genie,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #42 (January, 1960).]

January 5-7: Jimmy Olsen returns to Hollywood to film several scenes playing himself for a movie called Perils of Superman's Pal, which is probably a low-budget made-for-TV movie. [“The Big Superman Movie,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #42 (January, 1960).]

The JLA battle Starro for the first time. [“Starro the Conqueror,” The Brave and the Bold #28 (February-March, 1960).]

January 25: Pre-production begins on a movie called The Daily Planet Story, which is about Perry White, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. Note: The roles of Perry, Clark, and Jimmy are supposedly played respectively by Clark Gable, Rock Hudson, and Dwayne Hickman, real actors who may be too old by 1975 to pull off those roles or, in Gable's case, have died. It's likely that real contemporary actors were hired for those roles at that time, such as — to play Perry, — to play Clark, and Ron Howard to play Jimmy. The actress playing Lois, Dolly Day, is fictional. [“The Star Reporter from Metropolis,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #18 (July, 1960).]

January 27: Linda Lee (Supergirl) is adopted on a 30-day trial basis by Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins, who years ago lost a daughter who would have been Linda's age. Mr. Wilkins is a captain in the Metropolis Police Force, and Supergirl secretly saves his life several times. [“Supergirl Gets Adopted,” Action Comics #264 (May, 1960).]

January 29: Superman battles Super-Menace, an energy-based “clone” of himself who commits suicide, killing both himself and his adoptive criminal parents, “Wolf” and Bonnie Derek. [“The Two Faces of Superman,” Superman #137 (May, 1960).]

February 1: Superman goes back in time and returns to Krypton before his birth, where he becomes Jor-El's assistant and falls in love with actress Lyla Lerrol, who becomes one of the greatest loves of his life. He proposes to her and is resigned to dying with her on Krypton when a freak accident separates them, and he returns to his own time on Earth. [“Superman's Return to Krypton,” Superman #141 (November, 1960).]

February 1: The JLA battles Xotar, the Weapons Master. [“Challenge of the Weapons Master,” The Brave and the Bold #29]

February 11: Superman battles a flame-dragon from Krypton that has Kryptonian powers as well as flame-breath. Note: This story takes place during Chinese New Year. [“Flame-Dragon from Krypton,” Superman #142 (January, 1961).]

February 11-12: Professor Ivo creates Amazo, a villainous android with the powers of the Justice League. [“Case of the Stolen Super-Powers,” The Brave and the Bold #30 (June-July, 1960).]

February 13-20: Brainiac makes a deal with Superman to destroy both Lois Lane and Lana Lang in exchange for sparing the Earth from a doomsday bomb. So Superman grants super-powers first to Lana, then Lois, who become Super-Lana and Super-Lois over the course of a week, allowing them to survive Brainiac's plot against them before losing their powers. [“Lana Lang, Superwoman,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #17 (May, 1960).]

February 22: Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins decide to return Linda Lee (Supergirl) to Midvale Orphanage, explaining that they couldn't bear to lose another daughter because Mr. Wilkins is a police officer with a lot of criminal enemies. [“Supergirl Gets Adopted,” Action Comics #264 (May, 1960).]

February 22-23: Superman discovers that Bizarro #1 has populated an entire world with Bizarros like himself and Bizarro-Lois, which is called Htrae, or the Bizarro World. He is put on trial for doing good deeds and only manages to escape punishment when he redeems himself by transforming the round planet into its well-known cube shape. [“The World of Bizarros,” Action Comics #263 (April, 1960); “The Superman Bizarro,” Action Comics #264 (May, 1960).]

February 25-26: Superman is forced to marry an alien princess named Jena on the planet Adoria but manages to convince her father to annul the marriage after he makes himself unbearable. [“The Captive of the Amazons,” Action Comics #266 (July, 1960).]

February 23-28: Jimmy Olsen briefly becomes a werewolf under the full moon after drinking a werewolf potion created by the wizard Merlin. He is only cured by a kiss in the dark from a mysterious virgin girl who is really Supergirl. [“The Wolf-Man of Metropolis,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #44 (April, 1960).]

March, 1975

March 1: Supergirl builds her own Fortress of Solitude in a remote part of the Arabian Desert. [“Supergirl's Fortress of Solitude,” Action Comics #271 (December, 1960).]

March 1-4: A teenaged Kandorian named Dik-Rey poses as a boy scientist named Tom Baker, who briefly becomes a superhero named Power Lad while Supergirl is taking his place in Kandor. [“Tom Baker, Power Lad,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #45 (June, 1960).]

March 3-5: Lois Lane is wooed by a super-powered alien, Astounding Man from the planet Roxnon, whose proposal she accepts until she learns he is really an android controlled by a very old man who worships Lois from afar. Lois substitutes herself for an android lookalike in the ceremony, controlled by an old woman named Geena, and Superman brings Lois back to Earth, leaving the old couple to live a blissfully happy virtual marriage through their android proxies. Note: This story never explains if the old man ever learns that Lois returns to Earth, though it is possible that he stopped observing Earth after this moment and never learned the truth. [“Lois Lane Weds Astounding Man,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #18 (July, 1960).]

March 4-7: Exposed to red kryptonite, Supergirl loses her memory and lands in Smallville, where she takes the name of Gloria Smith and goes to live in the house of a scientist and his wife, Prof. Ralph and Ellen Evans. She then makes her first public appearance as Supergirl in Smallville, quickly becoming adopted by the town. After Superman returns from the Fortress of Solitude, where he has been busy trying to find a way to restore Kandor to normal size, he discovers Supergirl acting openly in Smallville. Using an amnesia gas he once hid underground as Superboy, Superman causes the entire town of Smallville (as well as Supergirl) to forget about Supergirl's existence, then fabricates new versions of all newspapers and local media over the last few days, erasing any trace of Supergirl's existence. [“The Day Supergirl Revealed Herself,” Action Comics #265 (June, 1960).]

March 15-20: Prof. Brant and his wife temporarily adopt Linda Lee after the professor discovers Supergirl's Fortress of Solitude in the Arabian Desert and learns her secret identity. Brant uses blackmail to have Supergirl make him rich, until Streaky the Supercat accidentally burns out his and his wife's memories of Supergirl with x-ray vision. Supergirl destroys her Fortress to prevent its discovery by anyone else. [“Supergirl's Fortress of Solitude,” Action Comics #271 (December, 1960).]

March 21-22: Superman, Lori Lemaris, and Ronal concoct an elaborate hoax to make it seem that Ronal is dying and makes Superman promise to become a Super-Merman and marry Lori, all so that Lois Lane will accept the marriage proposal of Brett Rand, a self-made millionaire who had a crush on Lois years when they were students at Raleigh College together. After Lois turns Brett down, Superman explains the hoax. [“The New Life of Super-Merman,” Superman #139 (August, 1960).]

March 24: Becoming so frustrated by Lois Lane's pestering him, Superman travels to an alternate timeline version of 1972 and as Clark Kent becomes a radio disc jockey after graduation instead of a reporter, gaining a secretary named Liza Landis who begins to suspect him of being Superman and pesters him even more than Lois did until she quits. After Lois herself of that timeline arrives to interview Clark, Superman returns to the present in his own timeline and learns that Liza Landis has married the radio station owner and is now very overweight. [“Superman's Flight from Lois Lane,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #20 (October, 1960).]

March 27: The JLA first battles Despero. [“The World of No Return,” Justice League of America #1 (October-November, 1960).]

March 22-28: Bizarro #1 and Bizarro-Lois Lane have a son, Bizarro #1-Junior, born sometime earlier with human looks. Since he is considered disfigured by Bizarro standards, causing widespread fear and anger among the citizens of Bizarro World, Bizarro #1 sends his son by rocket-ship into space for his own safety. He lands on Earth and is brought to Midvale Orphanage, then adopted by Superman and Supergirl for a few days. Bizarro #1-Junior's appearance then changes to that of a Bizarro, and Bizarro-Supergirl is accidentally created. Then Bizarro #1 discovers that Superman has his son and launches a Bizarro invasion of Earth. Superman creates blue kryptonite to stop the invasion, inadvertently causing Bizarro-Supergirl's death. Bizarro #1-Junior is returned to his parents on Bizarro World. [“The Son of Bizarro,” Superman #140 (October, 1960).]

March 28-30: The Superman Emergency Squad, led by Superman's cousin Don-El, is formed by a group of 66 men from Kandor. The Squad uses their super-powers even at their tiny size to perform good deeds when Superman is away from Earth. [“The Mystery of the Tiny Supermen,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #48 (October, 1960).]

March 31: The JLA makes its first interdimensional trip to Magic-Land after villains from that world made Earth and Magic-Land briefly switch places, causing magic to work on Earth and science to work on Magic-Land. Note: This story supposedly takes place four weeks after Halloween (October 31), but this is contradicted by the fact that Merlin attempts to use a springtime spell. [“Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers,” Justice League of America #1 (December 1960-January 1961).]

April, 1975

Green Lantern battles the Puppet-Master [Green Lantern v2 #1]

Jim Rook's wife Janet leaves him. [Whatever Happened to Nightmaster?]

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia.

April 1: Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk meet and team up for the first time, causing mischief for Superman, Batman, and Robin. [“Bat-Mite Meets Mr. Mxyzptlk,” World's Finest Comics #113 (November, 1960).]

April 2: Superman travels back in time to mid-1930s Chicago, where he gives rise to the legend of the “Untouchable” federal agent who infiltrates the gang of crime boss Al Magone, helping the teenaged Perry White to get his first scoop and a job as a cub reporter at the Chicago Journal, before returning to the present. Note: This story originally had Superman in the 1920s battling Al Capone, but this would make Perry White much older than he is in contemporary stories. More likely Superman encountered not Al Capone himself but Al Magone, a 1930s gangster in the mold of Capone who appeared in Green Lantern v2 #55-56. [“Superman Meets Al Capone,” Superman #142 (January, 1961).]

April 6: Lois Lane is briefly married a second time to a man from the 23rd century named X-Plam who brings proof of their wedding on that very day. Lois marries him, but once the two go to the 23rd century his normal, grotesque, green appearance returns, and Lois also gains a similar look. X-Plam sees her sadness and sends her back to the 20th century, killing himself in the process. [“The Man Who Married Lois Lane,” Superman #136 (April, 1960).]

April 19-20: A series of circumstances puts Lois Lane in the bottle city of Kandor, where she meets Dik-Zee (Van-Zee's twin brother, both of whom are doubles of Superman), a reporter for the Kandor Press. The two fall in love, and Dik-Zee proposes to Lois a moment before Superman brings her back to her normal size outside the bottle city. [“The Dolls of Doom,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #21 (November, 1960).]

April 21-22: Lois Lane and Lana Lang gain super-powers from a magic lake and briefly become Super-Lois and Super-Lana once more, competing with each other for Superman's affections, including each carving their faces into Mount Rushmore, until their powers fade. [“The Battle Between Super-Lois and Super-Lana,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #21 (November, 1960).]

April 23: Lois Lane travels back in time to 12th century England, where she competes for the affections of Robin Hood with a redheaded woman named Laura. Lois then discovers Laura is really a disguised Maid Marian, who asks Lois to be her bridesmaid for their wedding, but at that moment Lois returns to her own time. [“Sweetheart of Robin Hood,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #22 (January, 1961).]

April 23-26: As the last descendant of Lord Olsen, Jimmy Olsen inherits the ancient Olsen estate of Olsen Castle and lordship in Sweden after he passes a series of supposedly impossible tests with the secret help of Superman, Supergirl, Krypto, and even Bizarro #1. But Jimmy decides to give up his title and donate his estate to make it a museum, since he is allergic to the local flora. [“The Lord of Olsen Castle,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #50 (January, 1961).]

April 26: On her 12th birthday, Donna (Donna Hinckley Stacey) and nearly two-year-old Dot (Dorothea) are granted the abilities of full Amazons when Paula Von Gunta modifies the purple ray to siphon a fraction of all the Amazons' powers and grant it to them. As Wonder Girl, Donna begins having adventures both on and off Paradise Island, often alongside the Wonder-Family (Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Tot), as well as her boyfriends Renno the Mer-Boy and Wingo the Bird-Boy. As Wonder Tot, Dot also has several adventures, mostly with the Wonder-Family as well as with Genro, known as Mr. Genie. Note: Wonder Girl definitely received her powers as a young teenager, as shown in Teen Titans #22; thus the toddler receiving powers in a flashback in The New Tee Titans #38 must actually be Dot, alias Wonder Tot. From this point on, Wonder Girl in the Wonder Woman series is referred to as a separate person, indicating that this is no longer the adventures of Wonder Woman when she was a girl. [“The Origin of Wonder Girl,” Teen Titans #22 (July-August, 1969); “Who Is Donna Troy?” The New Teen Titans #38 (January, 1984); “Amazon Magic-Eye Album,” Wonder Woman #123 (July, 1961)]

April 27-30: Traveling to Cardiff in New England, Lois Lane meets Lena Thorul and discovers that not only does Lena possess psychic abilities but she is also the sister of Lex Luthor but does not remember that fact. Lex Luthor makes Superman vow to keep that secret. [“The Curse of Lena Thorul,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #23 (February, 1961).]

May, 1975

Green Lantern first learns about Qward and the Weaponers. [Green Lantern v2 #2]

The Flash battles an elusive criminal who no one recalls. [Flash: the Forgotten Rogue]

May 11: Kanjar Ro, ruler of the planet Dhor in the Antares star system, enslaves the Justice League of America and uses the gamma metal gong to cause the entire population of Earth to freeze in place, then makes the JLA capture the rival rulers of planets in his star system – Hyathis of Alstair, Kromm of Mosteel, and Sayyar of Llarr. The heroes free themselves and imprison the four rulers together on a meteor world surrounded by a permanent force-field created by Green Lantern's power ring. The JLA then undoes the freezing effect on Earth. [“The Slave Ship of Space,” Justice League of America #3 (February-March, 1961).]

May 15: The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued in operation by U.S. Navy and Marines, 38 of whom are killed.

May 17-18: Supergirl and Superman meet their counterparts Marvel Maid and Marvel Man on the planet Terra, where the teenaged Marvel Maid is the planet's hero, and the grown-up Marvel Man is her secret weapon. Marvel Maid is Lea Lindy, a cub reporter for the Daily Planet in Macropolis (run by editor Perry Waite), while Marvel Man is Ken Clark, a prisoner the same age as the young Marvel Maid but prematurely aged into adulthood and jailed because he lacks identity papers. Both are the last survivors of a super-scientific underground civilization that was destroyed. Marvel Maid travels to Earth, where she is mistaken for Supergirl by Superman, and she tells Superman she thinks Supergirl is ready to be revealed to the public. Upon returning to Terra, Marvel Maid reveals Marvel Man's existence to their world. But Superman decides Supergirl is not yet ready after she made a few crucial mistakes while on Terra. [“The Second Supergirl,” Action Comics #272 (January, 1961); “The Supergirl of Two Worlds,” Action Comics #273 (February, 1961).]

May 18-26: Lois Lane becomes Superwoman once more when she is briefly given super-powers by a Superman robot posing as the real Superman and claiming that he his powers were taken away from him and granted to Lois. The Superman robot, now supposedly a normal man, proposes to Lois, who ultimately rejects him. As Superwoman, Lois wears her Super-Lois costume and saves Metropolis from Hurricane Elsa. Meanwhile, the real Superman loses his powers on a planet where the sun's yellow rays are turned green by that world's dictator, Drago, who also caused all but his own followers to become blind. Even without super-powers and blinded himself, Superman leads the blind slaves in a revolution against the dictator. Drago's followers are exiled, and Drago himself dies of a disease brought on by panic, while the eyesight is returned to Superman and the people, and the sun's rays become yellow once more, giving Superman his powers back. After promising to return someday, Superman goes back to Earth to discover that Superman Robot Z, whose batteries run down, has been posing as him. Lois loses her temporary Superwoman powers. Meanwhile, on the world formerly ruled by Drago, the people use Drago's plans to remake their world in his own image and use it to instead give the planet the features of Superman's face, memorized by a blind woman named Pera who touched his face. [“The Reversed Super-Powers,” Action Comics #274 (March, 1961); “Superman Under the Green Sun,” Superman #155 (August, 1962).]

May 28-30: As part of a ruse concocted by Superman and Lois Lane, Aquaman poses as Mental Man, a newspaper comic strip character created and written by Lois, in order to capture a gang of crooks. [“Superman's Rival, Mental Man,” Action Comics #272 (January, 1961).]

June, 1975

Krypto the Super-Dog builds his Doghouse of Solitude in space by this time. [Superman #150]

Adam Strange vanguishes the Tornado Tyrant. [Mystery in Space #61]

Liza Warner witnesses her roommates' murders, and decides to become a cop. [First Issue Special #4]

Hawkman and Hawkgirl come to Earth after Byth. [The Brave and the Bold #34]

June 2: Supergirl travels back into the past and meets Annie Oakley in 1885, Betsy Ross in 1776, and Pocahontas in 1607, encountering green kryptonite in each of those times. After Supergirl asks Superman how it's possible for kryptonite to exist in a time before Krypton's explosion, Superman explains that, years ago, he witnessed a green kryptonite meteor vanish as it struck a test H-bomb that Superman was forced to detonate in the upper atmosphere because it was going off too soon. He theorizes that fragments of this kryptonite meteor were somehow sent back in time by the force of the explosion. [“Supergirl's Three Time Trips,” Action Comics #274 (March, 1961).]

June 11: Supergirl is given a second chance to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. She joins the team along with Brainiac Five, whom she learns is the descendant of Brainiac, and who becomes her boyfriend in the future. Brainiac Five gives Supergirl a force-shield belt, but it is accidentally destroyed after Supergirl returns to the present. [“Supergirl's Three Super Girl-Friends,” Action Comics #276 (May, 1961).]

June 16: On the anniversary of Krypton's destruction, its survivors – Superman, Supergirl, Krypto, the citizens of Kandor, and the Phantom Zone villains – observe one minute of silence in honor of the lost world, while the citizens of Bizarro World honor it with cheering. Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto then turn a dead world into a replica of Krypton, populating it with android duplicates of Kryptonians. [“The One Minute of Doom,” Superman #150 (January, 1962).]

June 16-19: Lois Lane attends a screening of a TV show called People Are Whacky, which sets up people using a computer, and she is called up to meet her perfect match, a man named Roger Warner who is identical to Clark Kent, but who is wealthy and flew over 100 missions as a bomber pilot and collected over a dozen medals for bravery during the Vietnam War. Lois thinks Roger is almost perfect, and the two hit it off, so Roger introduces her to his family. But after Superman accidentally creates a gust of wind that blows Roger's toupee off, revealing him to be bald in front of Lois, an ashamed Roger breaks off the relationship and leaves on a three-year trip around the world. [“The Perfect Husband,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #24 (April, 1961).]

June 22-23: Hercules is brought from ancient Greece to present-day Metropolis by Lex Luthor, who uses subliminal teaching techniques to teach him the basics of modern life and the English language overnight. Luthor has Hercules rob Fort Knox by claiming they had stolen his wealth from him, but Hercules realizes that Luthor is evil. Superman allows Hercules to remain in this time at his request and helps Hercules get a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet under the new identity of Roger Tate. Hercules immediately falls in love with Lois Lane while working with her on one of his first assignments, and he proposes to her that very night. Lois turns him down, explaining she loves Superman. Note: This is the second time Superman and Hercules have met, though Hercules does not recall the earlier encounter. Superboy once met the teenaged Hercules during a time trip, as depicted in Adventure Comics #257. [“Hercules in the 20th Century,” Action Comics #267 (August, 1960).]

June 24-25: Using a growth ray he found on the beach, Jimmy Olsen accidentally transforms himself into the Turtle Man, a giant the size of a skyscraper, and he destroys the Metropolis Bridge and the Trans-Atlantic Cable. After discovering that Jimmy is being controlled by an Atlantean criminal named Goxo, Superman changes Jimmy back and captures Goxo. [“The Giant Turtle Man,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #53 (June, 1961).]

June 27: After fighting a super-powered creature called Golanth, Batwoman briefly gains super-powers once again, but Lex Luthor manages to remotely control her body even as he controls Golanth, using her against Superman, Batman, and Robin. After Golanth is damaged, Batwoman loses her powers but regains her control. [“The Super-Batwoman and the Super-Creature,” World's Finest Comics #117 (May, 1961).]

June 28: Doctor Destiny, a master of gravity, infiltrates the JLA disguised as Green Lantern. [“When Gravity Went Wild,” Justice League of America #5 (June-July, 1961).]

July, 1975

Hawkman battles Matter Master for the first time. [The Brave and the Bold #35]

July 5: Superman and Supergirl use their telescopic vision to view the planet Oceania, where that planet's hero Hyper-Man (Chester King) is on his deathbed, dying from an incurable ailment. Superman explains that he manipulated events so that that Chester would marry his girlfriend Lydia Long and have one year of happiness before he died. [“The Superman from Outer Space,” Action Comics #265 (June, 1960).]

July 12: Krypto the Superdog and Streaky the Supercat meet and begin their feud. As Supergirl tries to settle the feud, Beppo the Super-Monkey returns after an absence of many years while he wandered the universe. [“The Battle of the Super-Pets,” Action Comics #277 (June, 1961).]

July 15: Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.-Soviet link-up in space.

July 23-24: Hercules, seeking to best his rival Superman for Lois Lane's affections, pleads his case with the immortal Oracle in Greece during the Olympic Festival. Thanks to the Oracle, Hercules visits the legendary Mount Olympus and receives several super-powers and weapons from the Greek gods. Returning to Metropolis, Hercules challenges Superman in an attempt to impress Lois. After a battle, Superman manages to overcome the ancient hero and send Hercules back to his own time, while his memories of his time in the twentieth century disappear. [“Hercules in the 20th Century,” Action Comics #267 (August, 1960); “Superman's Battle with Hercules,” Action Comics #268 (September, 1960).]

July 25: Jimmy Olsen is sent back to the time of King Arthur and Camelot by a jealous Mr. Mxyzptlk, who loves Jimmy's girlfriend Lucy Lane. In the past, Jimmy discovers that several figures appear to be doubles of people he knows in the present, and that Merlin is really an imp from Zrfff (an ancestor of Mr. Mxyzptlk impersonating the real Merlin), whom he sends to the fifth dimension by making him say his name backwards. After returning to the present, Jimmy and Lucy outwit Mr. Mxyzptlk. Note: Since the real Merlin is not an imp from the fifth dimension, these events likely took place during a time when Merlin was trapped elsewhere. It's likely that the figures of the past don't really resemble people Jimmy knew in the present, but that he merely thought they did thanks to Mxy's spell that sent him back in time. [“The Black Magician,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #53 (June, 1961).]

July 26-28: Jimmy Olsen and Van-Zee exchange places as Jimmy visits the bottle city of Kandor, but Superman soon explains that due to an unforeseen reason, Jimmy can't return to the outer world. So he settles in to his life in Kandor for a few days until Superman and Van-Zee manage to find a missing element necessary for exchanging them again. [“The Boy in the Bottle,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #53 (June, 1961).]

July 29: Ray Palmer first uses his dwarf star power to become the Atom. [Showcase #34]

August, 1975

Hawkman battles Konrad Kaslak for the first time. [The Brave and the Bold #36]

Aquaman first meets Quisp. [Aquaman #1]

Hawkman battles Shadow Thief for the first time. [The Brave and the Bold #36]

August 9-14: Lois Lane gains great intelligence and an enlarged, bald cranium after exposure to a machine called the Brain Bank, invented by Prof. Holt. Lois, along with her sister Lucy Lane, relocates to a beach house until the effect disappears. [“Lois Lane's Super-Brain,” Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #27 (August, 1961).]

August 14-16: Lex Luthor contacts the Legion of Super-Villains in the far future after theorizing that such a group must exist. The LSV visits the present and attacks Superman. Then Superman is lured away from Earth by the Legion of Super-Villains and Lex Luthor, who plan to kill him. The hero is saved by the adult Legion of Super-Heroes. [“The Legion of Super-Villains,” Superman #147 (August, 1961).]

August 16: Superman travels into an alternate timeline version of the 30th century, where he meets Lois 4XR, a descendant of Lois Lane, and learns that everyone on Earth possesses super-powers thanks to a meteor that struck Earth and destroyed Metropolis in 2441 A.D., releasing a gas that imbued super-powers. Note: This is the Earth-1 version of an Earth-2 story from 1949. [“The Lois Lane of the Future,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #28 (October, 1961).]

August 22: Jimmy Olsen briefly travels back in time where he meets Thor and becomes his pal, known as Jimmy the Red. Together, they battle Loki, who turns out to be an imp from the fifth dimensional world of Zrfff (an ancestor of Mr. Mxyzptlk who may be impersonating the real Loki). [“Jimmy the Red, Thor's Best Pal,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #55 (September 1961).]

August 23-31: Superman battles Achilles, a modern-day criminal named Cyrus who claims to have gained invulnerability after being dipped in the river Styx as a boy. Superman exposes him as a phony using an invention to repel all magnetic objects. [“The 20th Century Achilles,” Superman #148 (October, 1961).]

September, 1975

September 2: Superman meets Prof. Amos Dunn, a scientist who once invented a teleportation ray called the matter-ray and teleported himself to Krypton before that planet's explosion and met Jor-El and the infant Kal-El, even saving his life after the baby is bitten by a poisonous fish-snake. After returning to Earth, the matter-ray receiver was damaged, and Dunn was unable to fix it in time to save Jor-El and his family. Later, after Superboy's debut, Dunn realizes that Superboy was an older Kal-El. In the present, after a criminal uses the matter-ray to commit crimes, Dunn's information helps Superman catch the crooks, and Superman keeps the matter-ray at his Fortress of Solitude. [“The Man Who Saved Kal-El's Life,” Action Comics #281 (October, 1961).]

September 5: President Ford escapes an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California.

September 12-13: Just before Superman and Krypto leave on a mission for another dimension, Superman tells Supergirl that he thinks she's ready to make her public debut. After their departure, a ring of kryptonite dust surrounds Earth, and crooks believe Superman has either died or is unable to return to Earth. Supergirl successfully impersonates Superman until the kryptonite ring disappears, and Superman himself returns, but Supergirl's powers disappear just as Superman was about to announce her existence to the world (though Supergirl's power loss is secretly caused by her double, a Kandorian scientist named Lesla-Lar, who hates her from afar). [“The Unknown Supergirl,” Action Comics #278 (July, 1961).]

September 14-20: Linda Lee (Supergirl) is adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers. Later, Lesla-Lar uses a ray to exchange places with Supergirl, and Supergirl lives for a time in the bottle city of Kandor believing she is Lesla-Lar, while Lesla-Lar as Supergirl frees Lex Luthor and becomes Luthor's secret weapon to commit crimes. Meanwhile, Superman is still trying to restore Supergirl's powers and is baffled with Lesla-Lar as Supergirl displays super-powers. Krypto guesses that this is not the real Supergirl and brings the real Supergirl back, sending Lesla-Lar to Kandor. On a time-trip to the past with Superman, Supergirl discovers that she has her powers in the past but not in the present. Superman then brings Supergirl to the far future, where she has powers once more. After returning to the present, as Linda Lee Danvers she is reunited with Dick Wilson, who is now named Dick Malverne after his own adoption. That night, just as Supergirl was about to throw away her costume, she realizes her powers have returned (in reality, by coincidence Mr. Mxyzptlk secretly gave her those powers in an attempt to humiliate Superman by granting a random mere girl the same powers as he; when Mxy voluntarily returned to the fifth dimension, Supergirl's powers remained). In Kandor, Lesla-Lar is arrested by the police before she can use her illegal ray on Supergirl again. [“Supergirl's Secret Enemy,” Action Comics #279 (August, 1961); “Trapped in Kandor,” Action Comics #280 (September, 1961); “The Secret of the Time-Barrier,” Action Comics #281 (October, 1961); “The Supergirl of Tomorrow,” Action Comics #282 (November, 1961).]

September 22: President Ford escapes a second assassination attempt this month.

September 29-30: Jerro the merman proposes to Supergirl, who tells him she'll have to think about it. Superman returns from a time travel mission to tell Supergirl that he now knows how she regained her powers (having seen Mr. Mxyzptlk at work), and that Supergirl's existence must be announced to the world without any more delay. That night, Linda Danvers tells her adoptive parents that she is Supergirl. The next morning, on September 30, Superman announces Supergirl's existence to the world on all channels from the Fortress of Solitude, explaining that she has been his secret weapon for more than a year now. Supergirl meets President Ford and is honored by the United Nations, who grant her the ability to enter any member nation in order to make arrests. The civilizations of Kandor, Atlantis, and several planets celebrate Supergirl's public debut. After Superman leaves on a mission to the 50th century, Supergirl is summoned by the U.S. president to defeat a giant monster called the Infinite Monster, which she does with the assistance of Brainiac Five, who sends a shrinking ray back through time to her that allows her to shrink the monster. In the 30th century, the date of Supergirl's debut is revealed. For her first successful public case, Supergirl is honored at the Pentagon and then at the White House. When Superman returns, he vows to the world that whenever he or Supergirl were gone, the other would be there to protect the world. Superman then revealed a new wing in the Fortress of Solitude that Superman built for Supergirl's exclusive use. [“The Strange Bodies of Supergirl,” Action Comics #284 (January, 1962).]

October, 1975

The Blackhawks come out of semi-retirement and begin operating as mercenaries. [“Death's Right Hand,” Blackhawk #244 (January-February, 1976)]

October 10: Superman, Batman, and Robin meet and assist Logi, superhero of the planet Durim, to capture three criminals from that world. [“The Mystery of the Alien Super-Boy,” World's Finest Comics #124 (March, 1962).]

October 16-18: Supergirl first battles Lex Luthor, who opines that Supergirl is just a robot created by Superman. After Luthor is accidentally killed from his own ray while on the run from Supergirl, the heroine visits first Atlantis and then a faraway planet to find a way to bring Luthor back to life. She succeeds in restoring Luthor back to life, but the master criminal is ungrateful. [“The Death of Luthor,” Action Comics #286 (March, 1962).]

October 19-22: A freak Bizarro who looks completely human and is a perfect-looking duplicate of Superman appears on Earth and proposes to Lois Lane, then traps Lana Lang in a future era after Lana guesses his true identity. Lois becomes briefly married for a third time, but during the wedding ceremony, as Lois is about to kiss the supposed Superman, his appearance suddenly changes back to that of a normal Bizarro, and he returns to the Bizarro World. Superman brings Lana back from the future. [“The Silver Coin of Fate,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #32 (April, 1962).]

October 24: Don-El, Superman's cousin and leader of the Superman Emergency Squad, plays the role of a living toy called Super-Mite in order to save the life of a young, sick boy named Danny Dare, who resides in a children's hospital. [“Super-Mite,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #60 (April, 1962).]

October 27-29: The Superman Revenge Squad (formerly the Superboy Revenge Squad) rears its ugly head once more when they attack Superman with nightmare-inducing red kryptonite, then invade Earth with an army of robots, which Superman at first believes is another hallucination. [“The Jury of Super-Enemies,” Action Comics #286 (March, 1962); “Perry White's Manhunt for Superman,” Action Comics #287 (April, 1962).]

October 31: The Justice League of America battles the Lord of Time. At the same time, villainous wizard Felix Faust frees the demons three – Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast – from their billion-year-imprisonment beneath the Earth in order to manipulate the JLA. The JLA travels to the year 3786 A.D. to defeat the Lord of Time, but they are unable to reach the 20th century, instead ending up in 2075 A.D., where they defeat the released Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast, before returning to their own time. [“The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust,” Justice League of America #10 (March, 1962); “One Hour to Doom,” Justice League of America #11 (May, 1962).]

November, 1975

The JLA and the JSA team up for the first time, but neither team recalls it afterward. [JLA: the Forgotten Crisis]

The Hawks return to Thanagar to report on their stay on Earth to Andar Pol. They battle Byth and Jarl and Hawkman received his Honor Wings which are attached to his cowl. [The Brave and the Bold #42]

November 4: Worrying that Superman will be a bachelor forever, Supergirl plays matchmaker and attempts to set Superman up first with Helen of Troy in the ancient past, then with Saturn Woman (the grown-up Saturn Girl) in the late 30th century, and finally with Luma Lynai, hero of the planet Staryl and a grown-up double for Supergirl herself. But when it turns out that Luma will be weakened by the sun's yellow rays, the burgeoning romance is doomed, and Supergirl gives up playing Cupid for now. [“Superman's Super-Courtship,” Action Comics #289 (June, 1962).]

November 5: Lex Luthor accidentally creates the Negative Superman, a negative-image duplicate of Superman split from his body. The two magnetically repel each other, and the Negative Superman undoes all the crime-fighting work that Superman accomplishes, until Superman manages to absorb the Negative Man back into his body. [“The Negative Superman,” World's Finest Comics #126 (June, 1962).]

November 1-10: After Lana Lang's mind is inadvertently corrupted by a broach Superman gave her, Lana uses a stolen miniature Phantom Zone projector to send first Lois Lane and then Lori Lemaris into the Phantom Zone during a time Superman is busy with projects for the U.S. government. After discovering the truth, Superman restores Lana, then releases Lois and Lori. [“The Phantom Lois Lane,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #33 (May, 1962).]

November 11: Lois Lane is summoned to the town of Drywood Gulch, where she meets eight Phantom Zone escapees who claim to have been members of a secret Kryptonian astronaut program. After Superman defeats them all, Lois writes one of her most memorable stories for the Daily Planet. [“The Town of Supermen,” Superman #153 (May, 1962).]

November 29: Jimmy Olsen turns 21 years old and receives a long-promised robot from Superman. He also learns that he will die in six months, so he proposes to Lucy Lane, and they are married in a quick wedding ceremony. Then Jimmy discovers that Lucy was an impostor, meaning the wedding was a sham, and that a group of crooks concocted the hoax to swindle him out of the fortune of millionaire Titus Gates, which he was due to inherit upon reaching 21. Superman uses the Jimmy Olsen robot to help him capture the gang. Since another branch of the family is contesting Gates' will, it would be tied up in the courts for years, leaving Jimmy unable to inherit the fortune. [“Jimmy Olsen's Wildest Adventure,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #61 (June, 1962).]

December, 1975

The Flash first battles Captain Boomerang. [The Flash #117]

Kanjar Ro escapes and attacks Rann. [Mystery in Space #75]

The Hawks return to Earth to capture the Manhawks. [The Brave and the Bold #43]

December 10: The Supergirl Emergency Squad, made up of several young women in the bottle city of Kandor (members of the Supergirl Fan Club there), is formed. [“Supergirl's Super Boy-Friends,” Action Comics #290 (July, 1962).]

December 21: Mr. Mxyzptlk sets his sights on Supergirl during Superman's absence, first transforming the entire population of New York City temporarily into Bizarros, then proposing to Supergirl and bringing her supposedly dead parents Zor-El and Allura back to her for the ceremony (though they were not dead but merely stuck in the Survival Zone). Zor-El outwits Mxy, causing him to say his name backwards, and the imp vanishes back to the fifth dimension, sending Zor-El and Allura back to the Survival Zone (though Supergirl does not learn this) and restoring the New Yorkers to normal. [“The Bride of Mr. Mxyzptlk,” Action Comics #291 (August, 1962).]

December 25: The Sandman and Jed Walker rescue Santa Claus from the Seal Men. [The Best of DC #22]

1976

January, 1976

Green Lantern first battles Hector Hammond. [Green Lantern v2 #5]

January 3: Quex-Ul is released from the Phantom Zone after his 25-year sentence is up, and after it is discovered that he was innocent of any crime he loses his Kryptonian powers and memory and Superman has him hired as an employee in the Daily Planet's production department under the name “Charlie Kweskill”. [Superman #157]

January 1-3: The Atom joins the JLA [“The Menace of the 'Atom' Bomb,” Justice League of America #14 (September 1962)]

January 9-10: Supergirl meets Lena Thorul, who has psychic powers, and learns that she is Lex Luthor's younger sister and that she gained ESP powers from a space-brain the teenage Lex had in his lab when he was still friends with Superboy. [“The Girl with the X-Ray Mind,” Action Comics #295 (December 1962)]

January 16-17: Lesla-Lar releases three Phantom Zone criminals – General Dru-Zod, Jax-Ur, and Kru-El – who then disintegrate Lesla, apparently killing her. They team up with Lex Luthor and grant him temporary super-powers, until Luthor discovers they plan to betray him, and he teams up with Supergirl to stop them. [“The Forbidden Weapons of Krypton,” Action Comics #297 (February 1963); “The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor,” Action Comics #298 (March 1963)]

February, 1976

Green Lantern first learns of the Guardians of the Universe. [Green Lantern v2 #6]

Zook becomes J'onn J'onzz's pet. [Detective Comics #311]

January 29-February 2: When a Kandorian scientist named Than-Ol claims that Superman knows how to enlarge Kandor but will not do it, Superman is declared an enemy of Kandor. He and Jimmy Olsen enter Kandor and assume the secret identities of Nightwing and Flamebird in order to prove Superman's innocence. [“Superman in Kandor,” Superman #158 (January 1963)]

February 14-15: Jimmy Olsen is briefly engaged to marry Princess Ilona of the Sunev Galaxy but manages to break it off when he learns she already has four husbands. [“Jimmy Olsen, Freak,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #59 (March 1962)]

February 16-17: Superman, Batman, and Robin encounter the Crimson Avenger (inventor Albert Elwood) and convince him to give up crime-fighting due to his clumsiness. [“The Mystery of the Crimson Avenger,” World's Finest Comics #131 (February 1963)]

February 20: Supergirl first meets Comet the Superhorse and learns his origin. Note: Although the 1976 Super DC Calendar places this on July 13, that date cannot fit on a compressed timeline in which Linda Danvers begins attending Stanhope College in September, 1976. Therefore, Supergirl's first meeting with Comet must take place earlier; we have placed it on the date of February 20th, the incorrect date of Supergirl's public debut as given in Lois Lane #41. [“The Super-Steed of Steel,” Action Comics #292 (September, 1962)]

March, 1976

The Flash first battles the Top. [The Flash #122]

The Atom first battles Jason Woodrue. [The Atom #1]

The Flashes of two Earths meet for the first time. [The Flash #123]

Green Lantern first battles Sinestro, the rogue former member of the Green Lantern Corps. Green Lantern also uses his power ring to temporarily turn all the citizens of Coast City completely invisible in order to keep them from becoming victims of Sinestro's ray. [Green Lantern v2 #7]

The Metal Men are created by Dr. Will Magnus, who completes Platinum first by outfitting her with a responsometer that provides her artificial intelligence. When the world is threatened by a prehistoric menace, Col. Henry Casper of National Defense visits Magnus' huge laboratory complex to seek help. Magnus completes the rest of the Metal Men Gold, Lead, Iron, Mercury, and Tin, giving each of them responsometers. Together the Metal Men defeat the menace using their unique metallic properties, but end up sacrificing their robotic lives to do so. [“The Flaming Doom,” Showcase #37]

February 19-March 19: Superman is believed to have been exposed to Virus X and will die in a month, so he sets out to accomplish several mighty deeds with the aid of Supergirl, Krypto, Lori Lemaris, the Superman Emergency Squad, and the Legion of Super-Heroes: they build great canals in Earth's deserts, destroy a small planet due to strike Earth in the future, destroy a fungus cloud that threatens Earth in the future, and make Antarctica habitable by humans by creating a small sun there. Thanks to Mon-El, observing in the Phantom Zone, they learn that Superman has simply been affected by a sliver of green kryptonite in Jimmy Olsen's camera this whole time. [“The Last Days of Superman,” Superman #156 (October 1962)]

March 20-22: Superman, Batman, and Robin fight the team of Lex Luthor and the Joker a second time. [“Joker-Luthor Incorporated,” World's Finest Comics #129 (November, 1962)]

Abra Kadabra comes from the 63rd century and battles the Flash. [The Flash #128]

March 30-April 1: Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen discover the lost civilization of Mistri-Lor, ruled by Queen Lura, who proposes to Clark and only reluctantly breaks off the engagement after he pretends to have broken his irreplaceable glasses. [“Clark Kent, Coward,” Action Comics #298 (March, 1963)]

April 1

The JLA first battles Doctor Light. [“The Last Case of the Justice League,” Justice League of America #12 (June, 1962)]

Supergirl learns that Fred and Edna Danvers had a son named Jan Danvers who was killed in battle in 1964 on Chu-Li Island. [“Supergirl's Big Brother,” Action Comics #303 (August, 1963)]

April 4: Lucy Lane proposes to Jimmy Olsen, and they become engaged for a while (though Lucy later occasionally dates other men before they break the engagement off). [“Jimmy Olsen's Viking Sweetheart,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #69 (June, 1963)]

April 8: The Tornado Tyrant, a villain who decides to become a hero, becomes the Tornado Champion and battles a fragment of himself that splits off as an independent Tornado Tyrant, even posing as the Tornado Tyrant to fight the JLA in order to learn how to defeat his nemesis. [“The Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant,” Justice League of America #17 (February 1963)]

April 9-10: Superman and Jimmy Olsen become Nightwing and Flamebird a second time in order to capture a super-powered thief, who turns out to be their friend Nor-Kann, brainwashed by the Superman Revenge Squad into committing crimes and given super-powers via an energizing jewel. [“The Dynamic Duo of Kandor,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #69 (June, 1963)]

April 14-15: A little girl named Candy gains super-powers after eating from a Kryptonian food cylinder that had fallen from Supergirl's rocket before she landed on Earth. [“The Super-Tot from Nowhere,” Action Comics #308 (January, 1964)]

April 24-26: Evil doubles of the JLA, created by Doctor Destiny's materioptikon, cause the real Justice League to be exiled from Earth, then divide America into three crime zones. The real JLAers return to Earth and fight the false JLA in their civilian identities, which are revealed to the world in the process, and are cleared of all charges. Superman uses amnesium on the entire world and his fellow JLAers to make everyone forget the secret identities of the JLAers. [“The Super-Exiles of Earth,” Justice League of America #19 (May, 1963)]

March 27-April 30: Lena Thorul becomes an amnesiac and travels to the African nation of Turumba, where she becomes known as the Jungle Princess for her exploits in protecting wild animals from poachers, until she is finally brought back to America, where she regains her memory. [“Lena Thorul, Jungle Princess,” Action Comics #313 (June, 1964)]

May, 1976

The Metal Men first battle Chemo, the giant container of chemicals. [Showcase #39]

Green Lantern first battles Sonar. [Green Lantern v2 #14]

Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad work together for the first time. [The Brave and the Bold #54]

May 7-9: Wonder Man becomes the new hero of Metropolis until Superman learns that he was formerly his strongest Superman robot, Ajax, given a chemically constructed android body with super-powers by the Superman Revenge Squad. After Wonder Man sacrifices himself to save Superman, he is given a hero's burial in Metropolis. [“Wonder-Man, the New Hero of Metropolis,” Superman #163 (August, 1963)]

May 2-10: Supergirl and Comet the Superhorse visit Zerox, the Sorcerers' Planet, where Comet is granted the ability to become a man whenever he is exposed to a comet after saving the throne of Prince Endor. Back on Earth, Supergirl first meets Bronco Bill, Comet's secret identity, which is unknown to her, and they kiss for the first time at a rodeo. [“The Secret Identity of Super-Horse,” Action Comics #301 (June, 1963)]

May 16-31: A young Phantom Zone criminal named Tor-An escapes and poses as a Midvale High School science teacher named Michael Barnes, who tells Supergirl he's another orphan from Argo City and romances her, soon becoming engaged. Supergirl ignores warnings by both Comet the Super-Horse and Jerro the merman, and goes ahead with the wedding in Kandor. But after Tor-An reveals he tricked her, Supergirl reveals that Saturn Girl posed as her during the wedding ceremony, nullifying it. [“Supergirl's Wedding Day,” Action Comics #307 (December, 1963)]

June, 1976

A tribal witchdoctor kills the Logans, leaving Garfield an orphan. A man named Galtry becomes his guardian. [Tales of the Teen Titans #3]

The Atom first battles Chronos. [The Atom #3]

The Atom enters the Time Pool to help Lady Jane de la Mare capture a notorious highwayman Dick Turpin in 1739. [The Atom #6]

May 31-June 3: The JLA and the JSA of Earth-2 team up for the first time to stop the Crime Champions of both Earths. [“Crisis on Earth-One,” Justice League of America #21 (August, 1963); “Crisis on Earth-Two,” Justice League of America #22 (September, 1963)]

June 3-6: Superman and Lex Luthor fight hand-to-hand on a planet under the red sun later named Lexor, since Lex is considered a hero there and Superman a villain. [“The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman,” Superman #164 (October, 1963)]

June 9

The Atom battles Doctor Light on his own. [The Atom #8]

The JLA first battles the Queen Bee. [“Drones of the Queen Bee,” Justice League of America #23 (November, 1963)]

June 15: Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad is given honorary membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes. [Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 72]

June 18: Linda Danvers (Supergirl) graduates from Midvale High and is given the Stanhope Character Scholarship for perfect conduct in all classes, and for modesty and an excellent character, allowing her to attend Stanhope College in the Fall. [“Supergirl Goes to College,” Action Comics #318 (November, 1964)]

July, 1976

The JLA turned evil by Antithesis and battle the Teen Titans. [flashback from Teen Titans #53]

Aquaman meets Mera. [Aquaman #11]

Carol Ferris contacted by the Zamorans and is given the power of Star Sapphire. [Green Lantern v2 #16]

The Flashes of two worlds meet to battle Vandal Savage. [The Flash #137]

Green Lantern first battles the Tattooed Man. [Green Lantern v2 #23]

The Atom and Hawkman have their first team up versus some alien invaders. [The Atom #7]

The Flash first battles Professor Zoom. [The Flash #139]

The Flash first battles Heat Wave. [The Flash #140]

Mavis Trent impersonates Hawkgirl. [Mystery in Space #88]

Green Lantern first battles the Shark. [Green Lantern v2 #24]

Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter team-up. [The Devil You Know]

July 3: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.

July 4: The United States celebrates its Bicentennial anniversary.

July 9-10: Jax-Ur, temporarily released from the Phantom Zone, travels back in time with Superman to Krypton before it exploded, where Jax-Ur creates jewel kryptonite. [“Secret of the Kryptonite Six,” Action Comics #310 (March, 1964)]

July 11-13: Lex Luthor and Brainiac team up for the first time. Luthor learns that Brainiac is an android, and he upgrades Brainiac's computer brain from a 10th-level intelligence to a 12th-level intelligence. [“The Team of Luthor and Brainiac,” Superman #167 (February, 1964)]

July 13: The Legion of Super-Pets is formed, consisting of Krypto the Superdog, Streaky the Supercat, Comet the Super-Horse, Beppo the Super-Monkey. [“The Legion of Super-Traitors,” Adventure Comics #293 (February, 1962)]

July 17

Jimmy Olsen is nearly married to Rona from the 7th dimension, until the wedding is halted by two Inter-Dimensional Police Patrol officers, who arrest her for the murder of all her previous husbands, all of whom had red hair. [“Jimmy's Inter-Dimensional Romance,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #73 (December, 1963)]

Supergirl splits into a good half and a bad half, who becomes Satan Girl and plagues the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century until she is defeated by the Legion of Super-Pets. [“The Condemned Legionnaires,” Adventure Comics #313 (November, 1963)]

July 5-19: Lois Lane becomes America's first female astronaut, and after weeks of training she pilots a capsule called the Lady Planet in Earth's orbit three times before landing in the ocean. [“Beauty and the Super-Beast,” Superman #165 (November, 1963)]

July 24-25: Lex Luthor gains super-powers and becomes a super-hero called the Defender on the planet Lexor, named after him. Ardora falls in love with Lex. [“Luthor, Super-Hero,” Superman #168 (April, 1964)]

July 29-30: Jefferson Pierce (the future Black Lightning) wins his second gold medal for the Decathlon race at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec.

August, 1976

The Teen Titans are formed, with charter members Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl. [The Brave and the Bold #60]

The Martian Manhunter's alter ego, John Jones, is presumed dead from this time on. [Detective Comics #326]

July 31-August 8: Superman uses an experimental red kryptonite antidote that unexpectedly splits him into two – an evil Superman and a good but unpowered Clark Kent. The evil Superman demands that the United Nations makes him king of Earth. Clark Kent is shot and then transformed by Atlantean scientists into a cyborg Metallo powered by green kryptonite. Just as Clark attempts to kill King Superman, King Superman reveals he isn't really evil but needed to scare off alien robot invaders from the planet Bxpa. King Superman and Clark Kent, Metallo, merge back into a single Superman, who puts a final end to the invasion and reveals the truth to the U.N. [“Superman, King of Earth,” Action Comics #311 (April, 1964); “King Superman vs. Clark Kent, Metallo,” Action Comics #312 (May, 1964)]

The Atom uses the Time Pool to go to Baltimore in 1849 to help Edgar Allan Poe solve the myster of a missing gold shipment. [The Atom #12]

Green Lantern first battles Black Hand. [Green Lantern v2 #29]

Finding her father gone and his house in a shambles, Zatanna discovers Zatara's diary, learns about backward magic and resolves to go on a quest to find him. [DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #5]

September 5: Lana Lang proposes to Clark Kent after Lois Lane convinces her he's Superman, but breaks off the engagement later the same day when he convinces her he's not. [“Lois Lane, Cupid,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #54 (January, 1965)]

September 9: Bizarro-Lex Luthor is created, and he replaces all of the perfect duplicates of Superman's costume on Bizarro World with imperfect ones with backward S insignias. [“The Good Deeds of Bizarro-Luthor,” Adventure Comics #293 (February, 1962)]

September 6-21: Superman loses his memory due to radiation from a rare type of red kryptonite that lasts for weeks, and he falls in love and proposes to Sally Selwyn, daughter of wealthy rancher Digby Selwyn, under the name of Jim White. After a jealous suitor attempts to drown him he is saved by Aquaman and his memory is restored, although his memories during this period of amnesia are gone. [“The Sweetheart Superman Forgot,” Superman #165 (November, 1963)]

September 22: Bizarro-Superman No. 1 leads an army of Bizarro-Supermen on an invasion of Earth, causing havoc as they try to make the world more imperfect. [“The Bizarro Invasion of Earth,” Superman #169 (May, 1964)]

September 26-27: Jimmy Olsen and Robin the Boy Wonder team up for the first time while secretly helping Superman and Batman. Jimmy and Robin use an abandoned mountain observatory as their headquarters, calling it the Eyrie, which they later make into a trophy hall for Superman's and Batman's shared cases. [“The Olsen-Robin Team Versus the Superman-Batman Team,” World's Finest Comics #141 (May, 1964)]

October, 1976

Batman begins wearing a modified version of his costume with a yellow oval around the bat insignia. Batman and Robin also begin driving a new sports car version of the Batmobile. Two new entrances to the Batcave are created, one through a grandfather clock in Wayne Manor, and the other a tunnel leading to a country road. [“The Mystery of the Menacing Mask,” Detective Comics #327 (May, 1964); “Two-Way Gem Caper,” Batman #164 (June, 1964)]

Vicki Vale leaves Gotham City to become editor of the Paris branch of Picture News Magazine. During the years she lives in Paris, Vicki is married and divorced before returning to Gotham City. During this time she also covers the Lebanese Civil War. [“The Double Life of Hugo Strange,” Batman #356 (February, 1983); “Cat Tale,” Detective Comics #521 (December, 1982)]

The Doom Patrol battles the Brotherhood of Evil for the first time. [Doom Patrol #86]

Mr. Zero is approached by a television producer about using his likeness in a program about fictional exploits of Batman. Zero agrees and signs the rights to Mr. Reizod.

Zatanna, disguised as an old witch, fights Batman and Robin [Detective Comics #355]

September 24-October 5: Supergirl discovers that her real parents, Zor-El and Allura, are still alive in the Survival Zone and finds a way to free them. Zor-El and Allura decide to live in Kandor in order to spare Fred and Edna Danvers from having to give up their foster daughter Linda Danvers. Note: The Super DC Calendar places Supergirl's freeing her parents from the Survival Zone on October 3. [“Supergirl's Rival Parents,” Action Comics #310 (March, 1964)]

October 8: Superman suddenly recalls his time as Jim White, when he was engaged to Sally Selwyn, but he allows her to believe that his double, Ned Barnes, is the real Jim White, after his death. [“The Man Who Stole Superman's Secret Life,” Superman #169 (May, 1964)]

October 9: Lex Luthor travels into the past of an alternate timeline and passes himself off as Luthor the Noble on Krypton, managing to woo Lara Lor-Van and even becoming engaged to her, until Jor-El is able to stop the wedding and declare his love. Luthor is then forced to tell the truth about himself, and he returns to the present. Note: Luthor must have traveled back in time within an alternate timeline in which Superman never worked as Jor-El's assistant, and in which Brainiac stole Kandor before Jor-El married Lara. [“If Lex Luthor Were Superman's Father,” Superman #170 (July, 1964)]

October 19-22: Superman and Batman battle the Composite Superman (Joe Meach), who has all the powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes, before those powers and his memories fade, and he becomes an ordinary man again. [“The Composite Superman,” World's Finest Comics #142 (June, 1964)]

October 22-23: Lois Lane travels back in time to Superboy's time and poses as reporter Louise Lemon, soon getting a substitute teacher job at Smallville High School, where she tries and fails to sabotage Lana Lang's first kiss with Superboy. [“Lois Lane's Plot Against Lana Lang,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #50 (July, 1964)]

November, 1976

Steve Dayton becomes Mento. [Doom Patrol #91]

Metamorpho debuts. [The Brave and the Bold #57]

Doctor Light vows to take out the JLA one by one, and starts with Green Lantern. [Green Lantern v2 #33]

The Atom travels to France in 1888 by the Time Pool to help science-fiction author Jules Verne recover the crystal ball of Nostradamus. [The Atom #17]

November 10: Superman and Jimmy Olsen become Nightwing and Flamebird for a third time, this time accompanied by Batman and Robin in Kandor. [“The Feud Between Batman and Superman,” World's Finest Comics #143 (August, 1964)]

November 11: Jimmy Olsen travels back in time to ancient Israel, where he befriends Mighty Youth, who turns out to be a young Samson, and also starts the world's first Beatles craze. [“The Red-Headed Beatle of 1,000 B.C.,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #79 (September, 1964)]

November 13-14: The JLA and the JSA battle the Crime Syndicate of America of Earth-3. [“Crisis on Earth-Three,” Justice League of America #29 (August, 1964); “The Most Dangerous Earth of All,” Justice League of America #30 (September, 1964)]

November 24-25: In order to allow Zor-El and Allura to live with their daughter, Kara Zor-El (Supergirl/Linda Danvers), her foster parents Fred and Edna Danvers voluntarily switch places with Zor-El and Allura in Kandor. Supergirl, Zor-El, and Allura, collectively known to the world as the Super-Family, are officially greeted by a parade in Metropolis. The Super-Family builds the Super-Family Fortress in the mountains and lives there while Supergirl trains her parents in the proper use of their super-powers. Note: Although Linda Danvers is shown leaving to join her foster parents overseas as part of their cover story for their absence, in fact Linda must have continued attending classes at Stanhope College so that she didn't have to repeat any classes so near the end of her first semester. [“Supergirl's Tragic Ordeal,” Action Comics #314 (July, 1964); “Supergirl's Choice of Doom,” Action Comics #316 (September, 1964)]

November 25-27: When Superman loses his powers due to a strange green comet, he selects a Kandorian named Ar-Val to become the new Superman. The power goes to Ar-Val's head, though, and he refuses to go after an escaped Brainiac and Luthor. Clark Kent is temporarily given the powers of three Legionnaires and Elastic Lad and becomes the Old Superman, and he ends up saving Ar-Val's life, who transfers his powers to Superman at the cost of his life as he turns into stone. [“The New Superman,” Superman #172 (October, 1964)]

November 27: Aquaman marries Mera and is crowned King of Atlantis. [“The Wife of Aquaman,” Aquaman #18 (November-December, 1964)]

November 29-30: On his 22nd birthday, Jimmy Olsen becomes temporarily invisible again as part of Superman's plan to capture a crook. [“The Invisible Life of Jimmy Olsen,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #40 (October, 1959).]

December, 1976

December 10: Hawkman joins the JLA. [“Riddle of the Runaway Room,” Justice League of America #31 (November, 1964)]

December 16: The JLA first battles Brain Storm (Axel Storm). [“Attack of the Star-Bold Warrior,” Justice League of America #32 (December, 1964)]

December 18: Lex Luthor marries Ardora on the planet Lexor, where he is considered a hero. [“The Death of Luthor,” Action Comics #318 (November, 1964)]

December 16-23: After accidentally discovering that Superman is Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen loyally takes an amnesia potion, which has a delayed effect, taking away his memory while he's in the Southwest. Jimmy meets a Native American man named Broken Spear, who calls him Flame Hair, and as Flame Hair he soon becomes the best pal of a medicine man super-hero called Mighty Eagle. But when Flame Hair accidentally discovers that Mighty Eagle is Broken Spear, he attempts to lose his memory through a knock on the head, inadvertently forgetting all about his life as Flame Hair (as well as Superman's secret identity). [“Jimmy's Indian Super-Pal,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #81 (December, 1964)]

December 24-25: Zor-El arranges events so that he and Allura can return to Kandor, allowing Fred and Edna Danvers to resume their lives on Earth with their foster daughter, Linda Danvers (Supergirl/Kara Zor-El). [“Supergirl's Choice of Doom,” Action Comics #316 (September, 1964)]

The Flash battles Professor Ivo who infused himself with various JLAers powers. [The Flash #158]

Green Lantern first battles Major Disaster. [Green Lantern v2 #43]

January 2-8: While chasing interplanetary thieves into space, Superman is tricked into entering a red sun system and is stranded without his super-powers on a planet populated by the Thorones, who possess super-powers, making him the weakest man in the world. There Superman and a Thorone woman named Lahla fall in love and together prevent the Thorones from launching an invasion of Earth. Lahla brings Superman back to Earth, and Superman tosses a moon into orbit between the Thorones' planet and its sun, causing them to lose their powers. Upon returning to Earth, Superman discovers that Lahla is spurning him for an ordinary, non-powered human from Earth, with whom she leaves to start over on a new world. [“Superman, Weakest Man in the World,” Action Comics #321 (February, 1965)]

January 9-10: Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane are briefly married and regret it until they reveal to each other that they were Magi the Magnificent and Sandra Rogers. Before they can go on their honeymoon, they learn that the marriage was invalid, since the justice of the peace had forgotten to renew his license during a recent illness, and they take this as a sign not to rush into marriage too quickly. [“The Wedding of Magi and Sandra,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #82 (January, 1965)]

January 26-27: Doctor Destiny has by now abandoned a physical Materioptikon, having gained the ability to use a dream Materioptikon, which he uses to transmit dreams into the minds of the sleeping JLA members. [“The Deadly Dreams of Doctor Destiny,” Justice League of America #34 (March, 1965)]

January 25-28: While under the control of living jewels, Robin the Boy Wonder and Jimmy Olsen form their own team to rival that of Superman and Batman, adopting an abandoned observatory they nickname the Eyrie as their headquarters and using new costumes, until Superman shifts the alien minds back into the jewel-bodies. [“The New Terrific Team,” World's Finest Comics #147 (February, 1965)]

January 30-31: Linda Danvers is chosen as a candidate for the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant. Over the next few months, she participates in and wins local beauty pageants until she finally wins the Miss Universe pageant itself. [“The Prize of Peril,” Action Comics #335 (March, 1966)]

February, 1977

Superman teams up with the newly formed Teen Titans. [DCCP: Times of the Titans book 2]

Batman battles Eclipso for the first time. [The Brave and the Bold #64]

February 4-5: Superman and Batman are accidentally transported to a parallel universe where their eponymous counterparts are evil criminals, and Lex Luthor and Clayface are heroes. [“Superman and Batman: Outlaws,” World's Finest Comics #148 (March, 1965)]

February 17: Superman gains a sword made of Kryptium, which can cut through anything. [“The Ultimate Enemy,” Action Comics #329 (October, 1965)]

March 7-11: Clark Kent is stranded in Crater Valley amongst a lost colony of Quakers, where the people grow to admire him for who he is, rather than compare him with his alter ego, Superman. Clark vows to return there again. [“The Secret Life of Clark Kent,” Action Comics #324 (May, 1965)]

March 29: The Earth-1 Johnny Thunder takes control of the Earth-2 Johnny's Thunderbolt and remakes Earth-1 by removing all super-heroes from history and replacing a few Justice League members with members of his gang in history as the Lawless League, effectively changing Earth-1 into a new Earth-A. But after the visiting Justice Society of America of Earth-2 defeats the Lawless League and forces Earth-1 Johnny to undo everything, no memories of this event remain for anyone except the Thunderbolt. [“Earth: Without a Justice League,” Justice League of America #37 (August, 1965); “Crisis on Earth-A,” Justice League of America #38 (September, 1965)]

April, 1977

Beast Boy makes his debut and becomes a provision member of the Doom Patrol. [Doom Patrol #99]

In Littleville, Wyoming, Robby Reed finds the “Dial H For Hero” dial which enables him to become a series of different super-heroes. [House of Mystery #156]

Green Lantern and his E-2 counterpart team up to battle Prince Peril. [Green Lantern v2 #45]

April 6-7: A peace-loving old man named Andrew Helm creates the Corti-Conscience Machine, which forces everyone on Earth to obey their conscience, creating instantaneous world peace. But after the machine runs too long and causes an overdose, the world is suddenly struck with war and crime, when no one obeys their conscience. Only Superman is unaffected, so he uses Green Lantern's power ring to restore the JLA's normal consciences, and the team prevents wars from breaking out along borders and stop a nuclear holocaust from occurring, before finally turning off the Corti-Conscience Machine. [“The Indestructible Creatures of Nightmare Island,” Justice League of America #40 (November, 1965)]

April 14: The JLA is manipulated by the Key into disbanding and destroying their original Secret Sanctuary hidden in the highest peaks of a mountain range. [“The Key-Master of the World,” Justice League of America #41 (December, 1965)]

April 20: The JLA reunites and battles the Key for the first time, moving their Secret Sanctuary to a hill outside Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. Note: In reading the early and later descriptions of the Secret Sanctuary, it becomes obvious that they are referring to two different locations. Although this story does not specifically state that the Secret Sanctuary is moved, this is the most ideal time it could have been done. [“The Key-Master of the World,” Justice League of America #41 (December, 1965)]

May, 1977

Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley) first battles Batman. [Batman #181]

The Atom battles the Bug-Eyed Bandit. [The Atom #26]

The Metal Men battle the Plastic Perils with the help of Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin. [Metal Men #21]

The JLA and JSA must stop the Anti-Matter Man from destroying both worlds. [Justice League of America #46-47]

May 15: Metamorpho turns down JLA membership, and the Justice League battles the Unimaginable for the first time. [“Metamorpho Says No,” Justice League of America #42 (February, 1966)]

May 16: Ak-Var (the future Flamebird II) is released from the Phantom Zone and lives in Kandor. He becomes the assistant to Van-Zee (the future Nightwing II) and falls in love with Van-Zee's niece, Thara. Note: At some point after this story, Ak-Var marries Thara. [“The Man from the Phantom Zone,” Action Comics #336 (April, 1966)]

June 7-9: Supergirl suddenly gives up crime-fighting to become a model in Paris, where she meets and falls for a young Frenchman named Henri. Seeking help to convince her otherwise, Superman recruits Wonder Woman to speak with her, but Wonder Woman likewise suddenly gives up crime-fighting and falls in love with a Frenchman named Andre, Count de Tour. Wonder Woman and Supergirl are each coaxed back into crime-fighting when they stop a shape-changing villain called Multi-Face from completing Operation Armageddon. Note: The reason, if there is any, behind Supergirl's and Wonder Woman's uncharacteristic behavior is never explained. [“The Revolt of the Super-Chicks,” The Brave and the Bold #63 (December, 1965-January, 1966)]

June 10: Superman and the Flash hold their historic first race three times around the world, and the race is considered a tie. [“Superman's Race with the Flash,” Superman #199 (August, 1967)]

June 2-18: Superman and Lois Lane run against each other in a bi-election to replace Senator Barton Schlumm, but each are disqualified for various reasons, and the governor finally appoints Perry White as senator. Van Benson becomes the new Daily Planet editor. [“Lois Lane's Anti-Superman Campaign,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #62 (January, 1966)]

July, 1977

Green Lantern first travels to the 58th century, taking on the identity of Pol Manning. [Green Lantern v2 #51]

The Titans meet Beast Boy [Teen Titans #6]

Arthur Curry, Jr. (Aquababy) is born to Aquaman and Mera. [Aquaman #23]

July 2-3: Superman, Batman, Robin, and Jimmy Olsen meet Brainiac A, an earlier model of Brainiac created by the Computer Tyrants but without a propensity for evil, who has collected three cities inhabited only by criminals, one of which is the ghost city of Jerat, from Krypton, which contains a gang of Kryptonians who stole the Golden Goddess statue from Kryptonopolis decades ago. [“The Invulnerable Super-Enemy,” World's Finest Comics #158 (June, 1966)]

July 12: Jimmy Olsen time travels back to Krypton before it exploded in a futile attempt to prevent its destruction, but his every effort is unsuccessful. [“Olsen's Time-Trip to Save Krypton,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #101 (April, 1967)]

July 17-20: After Lois Lane comes to believe that Bruce Wayne is Superman, Bruce and Lois briefly date, then become engaged. On the wedding day, Lois tells Bruce she can't marry him after she discovers he can't be Superman. [“Superman and Batman's Joke on Lois Lane,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #59 (August, 1965)]

July 22: Deng Xiaoping, a purged Chinese leader, is restored to power as the Gang of Four is expelled from the Communist Party.

July 28: The JLA battle the Shaggy Man, a synthetic creature created two years earlier by inventor Andrew Zagarian. [“The Super-Struggle Against the Shaggy Man,” Justice League of America #45 (June, 1966)]

July 26-30: Clark Kent is supposedly blinded by a weapon in the form of a capsule, forcing Superman to abandon his Clark Kent identity. [“The New Lives of Superman,” Superman #182 (January, 1966)]

August, 1977

Zatanna meets and briefly dates John Constantine. They break it off after a year because she realizes he is bad for her.

August 1-2: Superman adopts the identity of English butler William Digby, which he abandons after bringing his employer, a master jewel thief, to justice. [“The New Lives of Superman,” Superman #182 (January, 1966)]

August 14-20: Jimmy Olsen travels to a parallel universe (called Earth-X, but may not be the more famous Earth-X), where he gains super-powers and becomes a super-hero named Steel-Man and fights the LUTHAR League while meeting strange counterparts of his friends on Earth-1. [“The Batman-Superman of Earth-X,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #93 (June, 1966)]

August 5-21: Superman moves to England and adopts the identity of Clark King, becoming a popular disc jockey called Clark the K. Finally, after Clark the K is mobbed by a group of girls, who tear off his outer clothing to reveal his Superman costume beneath, Superman returns to Metropolis and resumes his Clark Kent identity when it is determined that his blindness would be temporary. [“The New Lives of Superman,” Superman #182 (January, 1966)]

August 21-24: Selina Kyle once again becomes the villainous Catwoman after an absence of several years. Lois Lane is kidnapped by the Catwoman and her gang, who turn Lois into a second Catwoman. After Catwoman uses a magic wand once owned by Circe to transform Superman into a black super-cat under her command, Lois fights Catwoman, who is finally arrested by Batman and Robin. Later, Lana Lang uses a magic cat's-paw to transform Superman back to normal. [“The Catwoman's Black Magic,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #70 (November, 1966); “Bad Luck for a Black Super-Cat,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #71 (January, 1967)]

June 30-August 26: During Linda Danvers' two-month summer vacation, Supergirl lands on the planet Gaea, a virtual duplicate of Earth where teenagers are dominant, and adults are treated like minors. After establishing her Linda Danvers identity in Centerville (Midvale's counterpart) with Mr. and Mrs. Frank and Ethel Davis (counterparts of Fred and Edna Danvers), Dick Malvin (Dick Malverne's counterpart) manipulates Linda into running for president of the Union of American States. Linda becomes president of the UAS. After Dick impeaches President Linda Danvers, whose identity of Supergirl is exposed to the world of Gaea, he becomes president, and the Adult Revolution Movement takes over the country. Supergirl reveals President Dick Malvin's plot and is given a ticker-tape parade for bringing unity between the generations before she returns home to Earth. [“The (Super) Girl in the Green House,” Action Comics #344 (December, 1966); “The Exile of Steel,” Action Comics #345 (January, 1967)]

August 28: Supergirl fakes a marriage to a villain named Raspor to trap him on a planet, after he boasts about destroying Krypton by planting an N-bomb within its core a hundred years earlier (though he was actually lying). [“The Villain Who Married Supergirl,” Action Comics #338 (June, 1966)]

September, 1977

Jim Rook releases 'Sing A Song of Sorcery'. [Whatever Happened to Nightmaster?]

September 1-2: Superman discovers Krypton-II, a decoy planet created by Jor-El and populated by androids once used to lure an enemy space armada toward it and away from the real Krypton, temporarily hidden behind a smoke screen. Krypton-II is destroyed when it crashes into the artificial red sun accompanying it. [“Krypton Lives Again,” Superman #189 (August, 1966)]

September 3: A lowly government lab worker named Maxwell Jensen is turned into the villainous Parasite, able to absorb others' characteristics after being exposed to radioactive elements that Superman brought back from another galaxy. The Parasite battles Superman, apparently dying when his body explodes after absorbing too much energy from Superman. [“Power of the Parasite,” Action Comics #340 (August, 1966)]

September 13-17: During a newspaper deliverymen strike that shuts down the Daily Planet, Superman briefly adopts the identity of Pete the Penman, the notorious forger and counterfeiter in the country who is currently in a coma. As Pete the Penman, Superman becomes a member of underworld mastermind “Pills” Paley's gang, bringing them down from the inside. [“Clark Kent, Gangster,” Superman #186 (May, 1966)]

September 21: The Nuclear-Proliferation Pact, curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, is signed by 15 countries, including the U.S. and the USSR.

September 23: Superman is supposedly split into two – Superman and a Super-Clark Kent – during a hydrogen blast caused by a villain named Baron X. In reality, Super-Clark is really Prof. Vakox, a Phantom Zone criminal, who tries to shunt Superman into the Phantom Zone. Note: This story is a retelling of the Superman story from Action Comics #222, placing that story on Earth-Two. [“Superman Versus Super Clark Kent,” Action Comics #341 (September, 1966)]

September 24: Barry Allen (Flash) marries Iris West. Note: The 1976 Super DC Calendar places the wedding on November 24, while The Life Story of the Flash places this in September. [The Flash #165]

October, 1977

Aquaman first battles his half-brother the Ocean Master. [Aquaman #29]

Charley Vicker becomes a Green Lantern. [Green Lantern v2 #56]

October 3-4: The JLA negotiates a new space treaty to set up a new asteroid prison for space criminals called Takron-Galtos. During Superman's absence with the JLA, Supergirl saves Metropolis from Brainiac. Note: The asteroid prison is unnamed, but it is most likely Takron-Galtos, which is known to be used as a prison planet in the 20th century, long before it is used again as a prison planet in the 30th century. [“Superman's Unbeatable Rival,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #74 (May, 1967); “Brainiac's Blitz,” Action Comics #339 (July, 1966)]

October 7: Superman encounters Amalak, a planetary conqueror known as the most feared space-pirate of all. [“The Four Element Enemies,” Superman #190 (October, 1966)]

October 12: Eterno the Immortal, a 50-foot-tall half-robot, half-android created by the Xan a billion years ago on Earth, is freed from his eons-long imprisonment in the earth's core. Superman battles Eterno but discovers him to be even stronger than he, and only the interference of the Superman Revenge Squad stops Eterno from conquering the world. [“Eterno the Immortal,” Action Comics #343 (November, 1966)]

October 16-17: Grax, a four-armed, blue-skinned villain with a twentieth order brain, tries to destroy the Earth with a K-Meson bomb but is stopped by Superman with Brainiac's help. [“The Super-Human Bomb,” Action Comics #342 (October, 1966)]

October 21-22: Brainiac creates Genia, a female version of himself with a twelfth-order intelligence. A disguised Genia tricks Superman, Batman, and Robin into helping Brainiac steal five of Earth's greatest cities. After Genia learns their secret identities, Superman sends her to Kandor to be reprogrammed to do only good. [“Brainiac's Super Brain-Child,” World's Finest Comics #164 (February, 1967)]

November, 1977

Jim Rook pulled back to Myrra to help them with a menace. Stuck there for five years. [Whatever Happened to Nightmaster?]

November 11: Superman visits the 30th century during the time of the Adult Legion of Super-Heroes. [“The Adult Legion,” Adventure Comics #354 (March, 1967); “The War of the Legions,” Adventure Comics #355 (April, 1967)]

November 6-18: Clark Kent is temporarily made an agent of the FBI in order to take down a dangerous Soviet defector named Philip Henry Master, alias the Acid Master. [“Clark Kent, Fighting Federal Agent,” Action Comics #348 (March, 1967)]

November 20: Jimmy Olsen marries Lucy Lane, but when Miss Gzptlsnz, an imp from Mr. Mxyzptlk's Fifth Dimension, interferes with them out of jealousy, the two later have the marriage annulled. [“Jimmy Olsen's Weirdo Wedding,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #100 (March, 1967)]

November 18-23: Superman encounters Doctor Kryptonite (alias Dr. Kane), an agent of Intercrime (a precursor to Intergang). Doctor Kryptonite nearly kills both Superman and Krypto when he is captured by aliens from the planet Floridis who believe he is the captive king who fled their world. [“The Face of Fear,” Action Comics #349 (April, 1967)]

November 26: Superman and Supergirl stop an alien man named Rinol-Jag, known as the Kryptonian-Killer, who has been tricked into hating all things from Krypton by Amalak, whom they capture and imprison. [“The Fury of the Kryptonian-Killer,” Superman #195 (April, 1967)]

November 27-29: Clark Kent is chosen to play Superman in a movie called The Superman Saga, in which he plays Dr. Stan Sage of Midcity Hospital, who is secretly Superman, and which co-stars actress Lyrica Lloyd as Nurse Susan Dale. Producer Marcus Moller gives Clark the new stage name of Claude Keith during filming. [“The Star of Steel,” Superman #196 (May, 1967)]

December, 1977

Hawkman battles and then cures the transformed Lionmane. [Hawkman #20]

Hal Jordan meets Guy Gardner. [Green Lantern v2 #59]

Titans teach Ebenezer Scrounge a holiday lesson. [Teen Titans #13]

December 5-10: Clark Kent falls in love with Lyrica Lloyd, his co-star in The Superman Saga, and proposes to her, revealing his secret identity of Superman to her in the process. But Lyrica dies from a rare jungle disease she contracted during the filming of Jungle Princess in Africa, and Superman is unable to save her life. [“The Star of Steel,” Superman #196 (May, 1967)]

December 12-13: Superman encounters one of his toughest foes, Zha-Vam, whose name is an acronym of Zeus, Hercules, Achilles, Vulcan, Apollo, and Mercury, and who possesses the powers of the gods. [“Zha-Vam the Invincible,” Action Comics #351 (June, 1967)]

December 20-21: Xan, son of an alien prisoner named Vyl, carries out his father's dying wish to take revenge on Superman and Batman for stopping him from robbing a currency shipment years ago, resulting to his years-long imprisonment. Xan causes Joe Meach to become the Composite Superman once again, and the Composite Superman nearly destroys Superman and Batman, until his powers fade. Meach, whose hatred ended with his powers, sacrifices his life to save Superman and Batman from being shot and killed by Xan's magna-gun. [“The Return of the Composite Superman,” World's Finest Comics #168 (August, 1967)]

December 24: Zha-Vam defeats Superman in battle, forcing him to admit that he is the greatest of all super-heroes. [“The Victory of Zha-Vam,” Action Comics #352 (July, 1967)]

1978

January, 1978

Batman teams up with Plastic Man for the first time, vs. the Molder (1st appearance). [The Brave and the Bold #76]

The Creeper debuts. [Showcase #73]

At age 30, Jonny Double quits the San Francisco police force.

January 1: Batgirl helps the JLA against the Queen Bee. [“Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen,” Justice League of America #60 (February, 1968)]

January 1-2: Superman learns Zha-Vam's origin and gains a belt from the god Neptune imbuing him with the powers of several gods, granting him equal power to Zha-Vam. In their final showdown, Superman defeats Zha-Vam through his literal Achilles' heel and returns him to the ancient past, where the gods Zeus and Prometheus turn Zha-Vam back into the clay from which he was formed. [“The Battle of the Gods,” Action Comics #353 (August, 1967)]

January 3: The JLA battle four powerful new super-villains given super-powers by black spheres from an ancient parallel universe and are overcome by their sheer power in what they call a super-crisis. After four JLAers are brought to Earth-2 to battle similarly empowered super-villains there, they learn how to defeat them and use that information to defeat the black spheres back on Earth-1. Note: The super-villains who attack Earth-1 are never named; only the Earth-2 villains are named. It is possible that they may be different on each Earth, though equally as powerful. [“The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two,” Justice League of America #55 (August, 1967); “The Negative-Crisis of Earths One-Two,” Justice League of America #56 (September, 1967)]

January 4-8: Superman battles Captain Incredible, a super-powered android from the 27th century sent back in time by its creator, Dr. Dane Gnorr, to be Superman's bodyguard. During the time trip, Captain Incredible's programming was accidentally altered, making him evil. Superman lures Captain Incredible back to the future, where Dr. Gnorr reprograms him to be the super-hero of that era. [“Captain Incredible,” Action Comics #354 (September, 1967)]

January 2-11: Supergirl and Batgirl meet while battling a spectral hand of smoke, and they are imprisoned in another dimension. Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite impersonate them in order to upstage Superman and Batman, then claim to be the Black Flame and Catwoman, until the real Supergirl and Batgirl return and reveal their impostors to be Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite. Supergirl and Batgirl become friends at this time. [“The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot,” World's Finest Comics #169 (September, 1967)]

January 19: Superman first encounters Q-energy, which comes from the antimatter universe of Qward and is powerful enough to hurt him. Note: Q-energy is stated to come from another dimensional universe, which is most likely the antimatter universe of Qward. [“The Case of the Lethal Letters,” Superman #204 (February, 1968)]

February, 1978

Aquaman first battles Black Manta. [Aquaman #35]

Steve Trevor briefly becomes the super-powered Patriot, while Wonder Woman is briefly robbed of her powers, as part of a scheme of the Angle Man. [Wonder Woman #174]

The Atom saves a mynah bird who becomes his partner Major Mynah. [The Atom #37]

January 29-February 5: The Flash and Superman have their second race when Abra Kadabra and the Reverse-Flash, disguised as Rokk and Sorban of the planet Ventura, threaten the Earth. [“The Race to the End of the Universe,” The Flash #175 (December, 1967)]

February 6-12: Clark Kent assists an archeologist named Prof. Steele, whose expedition is financed by the Daily Planet, when a strange-looking alien attacks. While Superman battles the alien, Prof. Steele is killed by a falling boulder. Clark takes the death very hard and decides he is unable to continue as Superman, desiring instead to start over under a new name in a more ordinary life. Leaving behind his Superman costume in the Fortress of Solitude, Clark flies a spacecraft to the planet Moxia, which is under a red sun and hasn't had a war or crime for nearly a century. There, he adopts the new identity of Clarken, a research and development scientist at the Computron Company, and falls in love with a blonde computer programmer named Lloru, daughter of Rolgar the plant manager. [“Clark Kent Abandons Superman,” Superman #201 (November, 1967)]

March, 1978

Deadman seeks Batman's help in finding his killer. [The Brave and the Bold #79]

March 7: An alien conqueror named Kromn appears on Moxia, proclaiming himself the planet's new ruler. Clarken (Superman) builds the Super-Robot to defeat Kromn, who is discovered to be a robot built by his girlfriend Lloru's father, Rolgar. Deciding his new life on Moxia hasn't worked out after all, Clarken leaves the planet and resumes his identities of Superman and Clark Kent on Earth. [“Clark Kent Abandons Superman,” Superman #201 (November, 1967)]

March 8-11: Superman and Jax-Ur learn that Krypton was actually destroyed by Black Zero, an agent of the interstellar Pirate Empire, and Jax-Ur executes him before being sent back to the Phantom Zone. [“The Man Who Destroyed Krypton,” Superman #205 (April, 1968)]

March 12-18: Superman battles the Annihilator, a man with explosive powers at his fingertips. He is really Karl Keller, winner of the Nobel Prize for biochemistry and former prisoner of a slave labor camp in East Germany, who vowed to get his revenge on Superman for not freeing him as he passed by on his world patrol, and who drank liquid explosives from Krypton to gain explosive super-powers. Superman is afraid to fight him lest he cause an explosion powerful enough to destroy Earth. Keller adopts a teenage hoodlum called Pocketbook Pete, who gains explosive powers after Keller's powers dry up and calls himself Annihilator Junior. Destroying the Washington Monument, Pete declares himself president of the USA and invites his old gang, the Skulls, to join him at the White House. After Pete demands that Superman provide him with more chemicals to restore his powers, Superman gives him chemicals that regresses his age, turning Pete into an infant. Keller, having helped Superman end the crisis, is given a presidential pardon and formally adopts the infant Pete to raise him as an honest citizen. [“The Mighty Annihilator,” Action Comics #355 (October, 1967); “The Son of the Annihilator,” Action Comics #356 (November, 1967); “The Kryptonite Rumble,” Action Comics #357 (December, 1967)]

March 19-23: The Parasite is accidentally brought back to life by an alien geographer whom he kills by absorbing his life force. Gaining journalistic abilities through brief contacts with Daily Planet reporters, the Parasite becomes reporter Larcon P. Leech and teams up with Clark Kent as a tryout, even as he slowly begins to steal Superman's powers, one by one. Finally, after he reveals his identity and severely beats Superman, the Parasite is captured by aliens for the alien geographer's murder and taken away to be sentenced to a prison world. [“The Power of the Parasite,” Action Comics #361 (March, 1968)]

April, 1978

April 8-16: Superman is infected by Virus X, known as Kryptonian leprosy, which was created by Lex Luthor. Since there is no cure for Virus X, Superman says goodbye to the world and all the people he loves, before being placed in a rocket to be shot into Flammbron, the hottest sun in the universe, in order to ensure that the Virus X strain in his body is also destroyed. The people of Lexor, learning of Luthor's plot to murder Superman, turn on their former hero and tear down Luthor's statue, with only his wife Ardora still remaining faithful to him. As the ship passes the Bizarro World, the Bizarro-Superman throw pieces of red and white kryptonite at Superman's rocket to honor him. The white kryptonite ends up killing the Virus X in Superman's body, though he doesn't fully recover for days. The intelligent flame-beings who inhabit Flammbron create a thermionic sheath to protect Superman's ship from being destroyed, then bring the unconscious Superman to the Crystal Planetoid to recuperate for a few days. [“The Head of Hate,” Action Comics #362 (April, 1968); “The Leper from Krypton,” Action Comics #363 (May, 1968); “The Untouchable of Metropolis,” Action Comics #364 (June, 1968); “Superman's Funeral,” Action Comics #365 (July, 1968); “Substitute Superman,” Action Comics #366 (August, 1968)]

April 16-19: Supergirl contacts Kandor and asks the Kandorians to choose a new Superman from their worthiest candidates, and the Kandorians cut off all outside communication as they make their decision. In Superman's absence, a crime spree begins, so under Supergirl's direction, five members of the JLA – the Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman – impersonate Superman, claiming that he was cured from the Virus X infection in the flames of Flammbron, then returned to Earth. Meanwhile, the real Superman awakes on the Crystal Planetoid to find himself completely cured and recovered from Virus X and realizes that the white kryptonite thrown at his ship by the Bizarro-Superman killed off the virus. Superman returns to Earth to find that the JLA has been impersonating him for the last few days, and he resumes his duties. [“Substitute Superman,” Action Comics #366 (August, 1968)]

May, 1978

Private detective Jonny Double has first public case. [Showcase #78]

May 20-25: Lois Lane is brought to the year 4068 A.D., where she learns that she and Superman will be married but killed on the way to their honeymoon in an ambush by the Executioners, an international underworld organization. Returning to the present, Lois tells Superman about her trip to the future, and Superman immediately proposes to her, reasoning it's the only way to keep Lois safe. They visit Lois' parents in Pittsdale and plan to have a secret wedding ceremony, but aliens observing them via space monitor send them gifts to wish them well. On May 24, Superman and Lois Lane are married at last. But just as Lois had seen in the future, they are ambushed on the way to their honeymoon by the Executioners, and Superman fakes their deaths in order to capture the gang. He explains that he discovered the Executioners' plan and learned that they used a brainwash ray to prompt him to propose. Lois insists that she and Superman call off the wedding, since he was hypnotized when he proposed, and they get a quick annulment. [“The Tragic Fate of the Superman Sweethearts,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #82 (April, 1968)]

June 4: The android Red Tornado II, created by T.O. Morrow to be a mole in the JSA, ends up saving both the JLA and the JSA from Morrow's plots to destroy them, and he becomes a member of the JSA. [“The Stormy Return of the Red Tornado,” Justice League of America #64 (August, 1968); “T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League Today,” Justice League of America #65 (September, 1968)]

June 6-8: A warlord named Klamos the Mighty who has conquered an entire distant galaxy and rules from the planet Cronta, has his emissaries search the universe for the most beautiful and powerful females. Wonder Woman and Supergirl are captured and taken to Cronta, where they are forced to battle all other contestants until they are the only two left. Teaming up, Wonder Woman and Supergirl overcome Klamos and discover he is a robot controlled by a dwarfish, homely man named Grok, who posed as Klamos' servant. Wonder Woman frees that galaxy from Grok's rule, but Grok vanishes, threatening to conquer other worlds. [“The Planetary Conqueror,” Wonder Woman #177 (July-August, 1968)]

June 11: The JLA is briefly captured by Doctor Anomaly, who is really a scientist named Dr. Phineas Quayle who traveled through time from the 1930s to find that the world has not become the futuristic wonderland that science fiction always promised, and he places the blame on the public's love of super-heroes. After the JLA escapes his traps, Doctor Anomaly escapes into the time-stream, where he remains until 1985. [“The Future Ain't What It Used to Be,” Justice League of America #240 (July, 1985)]

June 12-15: Orr, the Bizarro World of the far future, by which time the Bizarros have evolved to a more logical, humanlike state, temporarily displaces the present-day Bizarro World when the Orrians mistake Superman and Batman for the founders of their world. [“The Hunter and the Hunted,” World's Finest Comics #181 (December, 1968)]

June 16-17: Superman returns to Earth after visiting New Krypton on the anniversary of the original Krypton's destruction to find that Earth has become a crime-free, trouble-free paradise in his absence by the robotic Sentinels, who were sent to Earth from the planet Sraghalni some 500 light-years away. Suspicious about their true motives, Superman destroys all the Sentinels but learns from the final Sentinel that their motives were pure. As evil and natural disasters return to the world in the Sentinels' absence, Superman considers this to be the greatest blunder in history and certainly the biggest mistake of his career. Note: Although the story claims that Superman has been on patrol in space for one month prior to his return to Earth, this is patently impossible, given that other stories are also placed on the anniversary of Krypton's destruction on June 16 as well as on Superman Day on June 11. [“The Unemployed Superman,” Action Comics #368 (October, 1968); “Superman's Greatest Blunder,” Action Comics #369 (November, 1968)]

June 18-24, 1978: Vitar, a member of the Superman Emergency Squad of Kandor, grows jealous of Superman having two girlfriends (Lois Lane and Lana Lang) and determines to win them both from him. Masquerading as a genie from a bottle by using an enlarging spray, Vitar meets both Lois and Lana and appeals to them to give him a chance by coming to live in Kandor for a while, since he's willing to marry one of them, while Superman has been keeping them both at a distance for years. Despite Superman's misgivings, Lois and Lana agree and go live in Kandor for several weeks. [“The Demon in the Bottle,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #76 (August, 1967)]

July, 1978

Titans meet the Starfire from Russia [Teen Titans #18]

June 30-July 3: Jimmy Olsen passes through an ancient obelisk-like artifact discovered by Prof. Lewis Lang and finds himself on a parallel Earth known as the Planet of the Capes in which a ruling class who wears capes rules over everyone else as slaves. Jimmy discovers that the mysterious scientist named Dr. X, who supplies the ruling class with capes, is really that universe's Jor-El. [“The Planet of the Capes,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #117 (January, 1969)]

June 24-July 4: In Kandor, Lois Lane becomes a detective, while Lana Lang becomes an archeologist. After spending a week in the Isolation Zone for being AWOL from the Superman Emergency Squad, Vitar romances Lois and Lana, but find a rival in Vitar's ex-girlfriend, Serena-Vol. Finding life in Kandor too complicated, since they get mistaken for their exact doubles in the Kandorian Look-Alike Squad, Lois and Lana return to the outside world. Vitar and Serena make up and plan to get married. [“Courtship, Kryptonian Style,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #78 (October, 1967)]

July 5-6: Lois Lane meets “Bronco” Bill Starr, the transformed Comet the Super-Horse, and falls for him. Later, after Bill becomes the Super-Horse once more, Lois is transformed by the evil sorcerer Malador into a super-horse, and she and Comet the Super-Horse become an item, though Malador's spell prevents Comet from speaking with her telepathically, so he's unaware that the super-filly is really Lois. After Comet and Lois save Superman from a green kryptonite meteor, Superman realizes that Lois has transformed into a horse. Circe contacts Superman from the past, telling him how to break Malador's spell, and Lois becomes first a centaur and then a human again after being exposed to Circe's cure, but remembers nothing about her time as a super-horse. Note: “Bronco” Bill Starr is mistakenly called “Bronco” Bill Biron in this story. Malador is mistakenly called Maldor. [“The Unbreakable Spell,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #92 (May, 1969)]

July 20-25: When Superman's lifeless body falls to earth, he is once more thought to be dead by the world, having been killed by a space pirate named Motan the Ruthless. Some of Superman's body parts – his eyes, ears, hands, lungs, and heart – are removed from his corpse so they can be transferred to a worthy person. Batman is chosen, but he declines. Lex Luthor steals the body parts and auctions them off to the underworld. Four high-level underworld figures known as the Big Four Syndicate win the bid, and Luthor performs organ transplant surgery on them, but keeps the heart for himself. [“The Man With Superman's Heart,” World's Finest Comics #189 (November, 1969)]

August, 1978

Wonder Woman loses her powers when the Amazons leave for another dimension, and she becomes a martial arts master under her name, Diana Prince. [Wonder Woman #178]

Wildcat (Ted Grant) crosses over from Earth-2 and spends time as a hero here. [Lost Heroes]

August 2-6: The Big Four Syndicate, each one having one of Superman's organs, begin a crime spree that Batman and Robin are hard-pressed to stop. Finally, the Big Four's bodies reject the implants at the same time, disabling each of them and killing the one with the lungs. The real Superman appears, explaining that he faked his death in order to capture the Big Four Syndicate by having an android lookalike from New Krypton fall to earth in a deactivated state resembling death, knowing that the artificial body parts would only work for a specific amount of time. [“The Final Revenge of Luthor,” World's Finest Comics #190 (December, 1969)]

August 3-7: Linda Danvers co-stars in a movie called Queen of the Islands, starring Zita Monroe and Brand Burton (also the director-producer), which is filmed on an island in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. [“Linda Danvers, Movie Star,” Action Comics #372 (February, 1969)]

August 7: The now-powerless Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) tries resigns from the JLA, but she is instead granted a leave of absence. [“A Matter of Menace,” Justice League of America #69 (February, 1969)]

August 13-15: Jimmy Olsen is temporarily given the ability to breathe water and command sea creatures by the god Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, who uses Aqua-Jimmy in his attempt to cause Aquaman's death during a contest determining who is the rightful king of the sea. Superman takes Proteus away from the sea, draining his powers, and strands him on a lifeless water-world with red water that weakens his magic. Note: This is the second time Jimmy Olsen has become Aqua-Jimmy. [“Survival of the Fittest,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #115 (October, 1968)]

August 8-16: Lois Lane is given super-powers by Dr. Cor-Lar of Kandor, and she becomes Super-Lois, proposing to Superman now that she's invulnerable to everything, including kryptonite. After Superman accepts Lois' proposal, and they set a wedding date, Dr. Cor-Lar tricks Lois into thinking she'll die if she doesn't remain in Kandor. Super-Lois becomes Kandor's new champion for a few days, while on Earth Superman teams up with Cor-Lar, who hopes to marry Superman herself. Finally, Lois discovers Cor-Lar has tricked her and escapes Kandor, then loses her powers and manages to remove Cor-Lar's Kryptonian powers as well, and she is returned to Kandor and arrested. [“When Lois Was More Super than Superman,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #85 (August, 1968); “Feud of the Super-Femmes,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #87 (October, 1968)]

August 17-20: Lois Lane, feeling dejected when Superman forgets her birthday for no good reason, decides to start a new life in Coral City, Florida, as a nurse under the name of Lois Lorne. [“Get Out of My Life, Superman,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #80 (January, 1968)]

August 20: The JLA meets the Creeper and a would-be teenage super-hero called the Mind-Grabber Kid (alias Lucian Crawley), who possesses telekinesis. [“Versus the Creeper,” Justice League of America #70 (March, 1969)]

August 10-24: Lex Luthor and the Joker team up against Superman and Batman once more, this time using a chronal displacer to bring into the present Benedict Arnold, Baron von Munchhausen, and Leonardo da Vinci, in order to help them plan crimes. Benedict Arnold eventually takes over the gang, while von Munchhausen and da Vinci help Superman and Batman arrest the others, and the historical characters are sent back to their respective eras. [“Duel of the Crime Kings,” World's Finest Comics #177 (August, 1968)]

August 31: After discovering that the Martian civilization has been destroyed by the Blue Flame of Mars, because of Commander Blanx of the White Martians, J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter) resigns from the JLA to help his people find a new world. [“And So My World Ends,” Justice League of America #71 (May, 1969)]

September, 1978

Dick Grayson starts college at Hudson University in New Carthage. Batman and Alfred move to the Wayne Foundation building. [Batman #217]

Oliver Queen grows a beard and mustache, while Green Arrow adopts a new costume, but continues to wear his original costume during JLA cases until mid-October. [The Brave and the Bold #85]

Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) goes bankrupt when rival businessman John Deleon frames him in order to take over the Queen Fund's accounts, an experience that radicalizes Green Arrow and causes him to adopt very liberal views. Note: These events occur about a month before the rest of this story. [“In Each Man There is a Demon,” Justice League of America #75 (November, 1969)]

Jonny Double involved with a case with the Challengers. [Challengers of the Unknown #74]

Zatanna helps the Flash fight Xarkon. [The Flash #198]

While Batman nabs a spy selling secrets to the Soviets, Wildcat must confront an old rival in the ring. [The Brave and the Bold #88]

September 1-11: Mordru the Merciless of the 30th century gets his revenge on Superman by imprisoning him in a super-vault, which he escapes only when he, Supergirl, and Brainiac 5 of the Adult Legion of Super-Heroes manipulate Lex Luthor into breaking it open. Mordru is captured by Sun Man, White Witch, and Element Man of the Adult Legion. [“The Most Dangerous Door in the World,” Superman #213 (January, 1969)]

September 4-20: Lois Lane, now living as Nurse Lois Lorne in Coral City, meets an astronaut named Commander Rand Kirby and falls in love as she nurses him back to health after a rocket accident. Meanwhile, Superman has been pining for Lois ever since she left Metropolis. When Perry White sends Clark Kent down to Coral City for a story on the new Venus Project at the Cape Coral National Space Center, Clark discovers that Lois has fallen in love with someone else, and Superman's attempts to win her back all fail, as Lois and Rand plan to get married. After Lois temporarily gains mind-reading and precognitive powers from exposure to a mind-gas, she discovers that Superman still loves her and has a secret dream to marry her someday, so she decides to break things off with Rand. When Rand is sent into space to rescue Superman, who is trapped on a green kryptonite meteor, Lois stows away by taking the place of a robot co-pilot and she rescues Superman, who brings Lois and Rand back to earth. Lois says goodbye to Rand, and Superman flies her back to Metropolis. [“Get Out of My Life, Superman,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #80 (January, 1968); “No Witnesses in Outer Space,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #81 (February, 1968)]

September 22: On the anniversary of United Worlds Day, Earth is made an honorary member of the United Worlds, an interplanetary organization much like the United Nations, thanks to Superman and the JLA. [“The Only Way to Kill Superman,” Action Comics #376 (May, 1969)]

October, 1978

Aquaman and Mera are reunited. [Aquaman #48]

Hawkman battles the Gentleman Ghost for the first time. [The Atom and Hawkman #43-44]

October 5-6: The JLA and the JSA team up to battle Aquarius on Earth-2, who forces the mind-controlled JSA to fight the JLA. When Larry Lance is killed, Black Canary decides to relocate to Earth-1. But as Superman brings her there, she is discovered to have been exposed to a fatal dose of radiation from Aquarius. Thunderbolt brings them to the Thunderbolt dimension, where he exchanges Black Canary's memories and soul into the comatose body of her grown-up daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who was placed there as a child because of her inability to control dangerous ultrasonic powers (her canary cry). After Thunderbolt erases all memory of Black Canary's daughter, Superman brings Black Canary in her daughter's body to Earth-1. Note: Although it is implied that the Black Canary of the JLA is really the daughter of Black Canary with her mother's memories, in fact it is really the original Black Canary's mind and soul transferred into her daughter's body, while her daughter's mind and soul were transferred into the original Black Canary's dying body and placed next to the body of her father, Larry Lance. Green Arrow wears his original costume and has shaved sometime before this story, but after this story he never wears his original costume again, and he keeps his beard and mustache. [“Star Light, Star Bright; Death Star I See Tonight,” Justice League of America #73 (August, 1969); “Where Death Fears to Tread,” Justice League of America #74 (September, 1969); “The Doppelgänger Gambit,” Justice League of America #220 (November, 1983)]

October 12: Superman meets his godfather, Rol-Nac, a space traveler who visited Krypton before its destruction and became close friends with Jor-El and Lara, naming their son Kal-El in the naming ceremony. Note: Although Rol-Nac is mentioned as a new member of the Superman Family who will be seen again very soon, he never appears again except in a flashback to his time on Krypton. [“The Devil's Partner,” Action Comics #378 (July, 1969)]

October 13: Black Canary discovers that she possesses ultrasonic powers (her canary cry), but she is initially unable to emit them in the right direction. [“In Each Man There is a Demon,” Justice League of America #75 (November, 1969)]

October 9-10, 14: The Robot-Teacher from Krypton, invented by Jor-El to teach Kal-El how to properly use his super-powers on Earth, returns to Earth to force Supergirl to retire, convinced that females are unable to handle super-powers, until Supergirl convinces him otherwise. [“The Super-Team's Split-Up,” Adventure Comics #382 (July, 1969)]

October 14-16: Superman is summoned to Oa by the Guardians of the Universe in order to save time itself from the invasion of faster-than-light beings from another dimension called the Anachronids. Superman and the Flash hold their third race, with the Flash holding a green medallion that uses all the energy from the Central Power Battery, temporarily leaving the entire Green Lantern Corps helpless. Superman and the Flash, entering the universe where the Anachronids came from, discover that Kru-El, Jax-Ur, General Zod, and Prof. Vakox escaped from the Phantom Zone into this dimension and created the robotic Anachronids in order to weaken the barriers between the Phantom Zone and Earth-1, thereby freeing all the prisoners and leaving them to rule what remains of the universe. As time begins to go awry, Superman and the Flash manage to turn off the Anachronids at the last moment, thereby saving the universe. [“Race to Save the Universe,” World's Finest Comics #198 (November, 1970); “Race to Save Time,” World's Finest Comics #199 (December, 1970)]

October 16-19: When Superman (as Dr. Astar) finds a shrine to Clark Kent in Lois Lane's apartment, he realizes that Lois is pining for Clark, so as Dr. Astar he predicts Clark's return and breaks things off with her. The next night, Clark shows up at Lois' door, explaining that he was saved by Aquaman after falling over a waterfall, and that his supposed suicide note was just a gag. [“Clark Kent's Last Rites,” Superman #210 (October, 1968)]

October 20-22: While battling an intelligent space seed seeking to destroy the Earth, Superman and the Flash switch costumes in order to confuse the seed, but lose their memories and awaken on Earth, where they assume each other's identities by mistake, inadvertently learning each other's secret identities for the first time. Finally, after recalling everything, the heroes save the world from the space seed by moving the entire planet out of its path, causing the space seed to burn up in the sun. [“Who Stole My Super-Powers?” Superman #220 (October, 1969)]

October 22-24: Super-Pancho becomes the guardian of Remora Island in the South Pacific. [“The Revolt of the Super-Slave,” Superman #221 (November, 1969)]

November, 1978

Travis Morgan's group makes it to Shamballah, where they find Tara and child (Joshua Morgan). [Warlord #15]

November 1-11: A spy takes the place of Clark Kent, who is accidentally struck by an invisible amnesia ray from an other-dimensional super-computer Superman brought to Earth. Sent off in a helicopter that crashes, Superman emerges from the burning wreckage without any memory of being Clark Kent. Searching for a clue to his secret identity, he theorizes that he may be the missing President of the United States. Disguising himself as the President, Superman assumes presidential duties in the White House until he discovers that the real President is returning from secret treaty negotiations out at sea. Returning to Metropolis, Superman wonders if he is a wrestler called the Masked Superman, and he assumes his identity. After discovering that the Masked Superman was only a fan of his, Superman searches for the wrestler all over the world and finds him an amnesiac shipwrecked on an island, then uses a fear tactic to restore his memory before bringing him home. Superman, fearing he might be Jud “Super-Thief” Blake, the most wanted criminal, assumes Blake's identity and leads his gang on robberies, only to return the stolen loot later. Superman soon learns that the real Blake was killed in a police ambush a year ago, and his identity has since been assumed by a disguised FBI agent who had been planning to round up Blake's gang and the fences all at once, before being called away for a special FBI conference. Since he's had no luck discovering his old identity, Superman invents a new one, donning glasses and a blue suit and planning to call himself reporter Cal Lewis. But he is immediately recognized as Clark Kent, and Superman realizes that someone has been impersonating him. Superman takes the fake Clark Kent's place and takes down the spy-chief and her gang who ordered the impersonation in the first place. Superman seeks out Batman's help to restore his memories, and they are able to locate the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman uses Bizarro-amnesium on himself to restore his lost memories. [“The President of Steel,” Action Comics #371 (January, 1969); “The Grappler of Steel,” Action Comics #372 (February, 1969); “Alias Super-Thief,” Action Comics #374 (March, 1969); “The Big Forget,” Action Comics #375 (April, 1969)]

November 16: The JLA members reveal their secret identities to each other after Doctor Light uses their lack of knowledge of each other's true names to their disadvantage. [“The Great Identity Crisis,” Justice League of America #122 (September, 1975)]

November 18: The followers of Jim Jones commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

November 18-19: Supergirl meets the teenage super-hero Volar, alias Ren Uoxon of the planet Torma, 2nd planet of star-sun 447B. Hoping that Volar will be her perfect romantic match, Supergirl is shocked to learn that Volar is really a girl disguised as a boy in order to be accepted in her extremely chauvinistic society. Once it becomes impossible to maintain the disguise, Volar determines to continue being a hero as a girl, even if it means fighting centuries-old prejudices. [“The Heroine Haters,” Adventure Comics #384 (September, 1969)]

November 12-14, 19: Lois Lane meets Dahr-Nel of Krypton and, while she's angry with Superman, becomes engaged with him. But as they use a time transport to take them to a future era similar to that of lost Krypton, Dahr-Nel is killed through a fluke chemical reaction that turns his body into green kryptonite. [“Lois Lane's Future Husband,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #90 (February, 1969)]

November 20-23: Superman and Diana Prince (who has apparently regained her Wonder Woman powers, as well as gained some new ones) become engaged after spending much time together. But Lois Lane discovers the real Diana Prince locked away, and the fake Diana unmasks herself as a Phantom Zone prisoner named Ar-Ual, who plans to take Wonder Woman's place and marry Superman so no one would suspect her of ruling a crime empire. But Superman temporarily removes her powers with red kryptonite and sends Ar-Ual back into the Phantom Zone, then tells Lois he had already decided not to marry Wonder Woman since he cares too much for Lois. [“The Superman-Wonder Woman Team,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #93 (July, 1969)]

November 25: Superman and Supergirl meet Princess Vee-Raa, who claims to be from Galaxy XL-9; in reality, she is from the Inner-World and is the sister of Prince Raynor. [“The Jilting of Supergirl,” Adventure Comics #385 (October, 1969)]

November 29-30: Jimmy Olsen meets a man who believes he is his father, Mark Olsen, learning that Mark has spent four out of five years in self-imprisonment in a glass prison beneath his mansion in order to pay for a terrible crime against a tribe in the Yucatan. After learning his father's health is too poor for him to remain for another year, Jimmy insists on taking his place for the rest of his final year of imprisonment. Note: The man who thinks he is Mark Olsen is really Mark's friend, Hal Rand. [“The Sacrifice of Jimmy Olsen,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #123 (September, 1969)]

December, 1978

December 1-2: Lois Lane temporarily switches places with the Lois Lane from an alternate mirror universe in which that Lois has married Superman, and they have a young son named Jor. [“The Lois Lane in the Mystic Mirror,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #94 (August, 1969); “Weep for Lois Lane's Baby,” Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #96 (October, 1969)]

December 14-15: Fired from the Daily Planet, Clark Kent takes up a new career as a stage magician called Kento the Great, using magic equipment left to him by the late Mr. Presto. [“Clark Kent, Magician,” Action Comics #382 (November, 1969)]

December 16-17: Because of his massive inferiority complex, Snapper Carr falls under the influence of John “Mr. Average” Dough, a celebrity figure known for being the most normal man in America, and betrays the JLA, revealing to him the location of the Secret Sanctuary. After Dough is unmasked as the Joker, Snapper loses his mascot status with the JLA, and the JLA begins searching for a new headquarters. [“Snapper Carr, Super-Traitor,” Justice League of America #77 (December, 1969)]

December 17: Jimmy Olsen learns that the man who thinks he is his father Mark Olsen is really his father's fellow archeologist, Hal Rand. Jimmy leaves his self-imposed imprisonment after Superman points out that it's no longer necessary. [“The Secret of Jimmy Olsen's Lost Father,” Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #124 (October, 1969)]

December 11-12, 18-19: Supergirl meets and falls in love with Prince Raynor of the Inner-World, and the two are quickly engaged. But after Supergirl temporarily loses her powers and is kidnapped by criminals, Raynor calls off the wedding, fearing that she'll be more of a hindrance than a help. [“The Jilting of Supergirl,” Adventure Comics #385 (October, 1969)]

December 25: Batman is able to spend the evening with the GCPD without any crimes happening. [Batman #219]

December 27: Perry White fires Jimmy Olsen, who gets a new job as a publicity agent for Kento the Great (Clark Kent). [“Clark Kent, Magician,” Action Comics #382 (November, 1969)]

Dr. Arthur Swenson, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is assassinated, and the Teen Titans completely bungle his rescue. The JLA tell the Teen Titans they must make a change in order for something like this to never happen again. Robin quits the Teen Titans to concentrate on college, while the Teen Titans meet Loren Jupiter and begin training under his tutelage. [“The Titans Kill a Saint?” Teen Titans #25 (January-February, 1970)]

January 7: The Pol Pot regime in Cambodia collapses.

January 16: The Shah leaves Iran after a year of turmoil.

February, 1979

Green Arrow and Black Canary begin to date. [Justice League of America #79]

February 1: The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini takes over Iran in a revolution.

March, 1979

Kirk Langstrom turned into the Man-Bat. [Detective Comics #400]

At age 13, Raven first learns of her father. [Tales of the Teen Titans #2]

Lois Lane is briefly married a fourth time to death-row convict Johnny Adonis as his last request, but although a jailbreak stops his execution he is later killed saving her life. [Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #105]

Scott Free becomes Mister Miracle. [Mister Miracle #1]

March 28: The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident occurs, releasing radiation.

April, 1979

Batman seeks an amnesiac Wildcat in Mexico. [The Brave and the Bold #97].

May, 1979

Leo Barone witnesses the murder of a close friend and vows to bring the murderer, Joey Catigliano, to justice. [ B&B: Cats]

The JLA and Zatanna fight the heroes of Angor. [Justice League of America #87]

Zatanna and her manager Jeff Sloane have adventures in another dimenstion. [Adventure Comics #413-415]

The JLA and JSA (including both Robins) battle Solomon Grundy. [Justice League of America #91-92]

Superman meets the Forever People of New Genesis and the villainous Darkseid of Apokolips. [The Forever People #1]

Morgan Edge (actually an evil clone), owner of Galaxy Broadcasting, becomes the new owner and publisher of the Daily Planet. Jimmy Olsen meets the new Newsboy Legion. The criminal organization known as Inter-Gang first rears its ugly head when they attempt to kill Clark Kent. Superman and Jimmy Olsen see the secret government cloning base called the DNA Project. The original Guardian's clone, the Golden Guardian, is created. [Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133-139 & 141]

Clark Kent becomes a TV reporter for WGBS. [Action Comics #398]

Scott Free meets Barda. [Mister Miracle #4]

All kryptonite on Earth is permanently turned into iron due to the explosion of a kryptonite reactor; as a result a sand-creature called the Quarrmmer is created, which begins to suck away Superman's powers. [Superman #233]

Travis Morgan storms the castle of Deimos, and must fight a clone of his son aged to maturity. [Warlord #20-21]

The JLA battles Johnny Dune. [Justice League of America #95]

May 3: Margaret Thatcher becomes the new British prime minister.

June, 1979

Kid Flash and Mal are hurled back in time and cause an alternate reality. Upon correcting the problem, they bring a caveman, Gnarrk, back to the present day with them. Gnarrk falls in love with Lilith. [Teen Titans #32-33]

The JLA, Adam Strange and Sargon battle the cosmic vampire Starbreaker. [Justice League of America #96-98]

July, 1979

Superman and Supergirl deal with a threat from space and the parties behind it. [Rocks And A Hard Place]

With the help of Diana Prince and I-Ching, Superman discovers that the Quarrmmer has exactly half of all his powers, but he decides he doesn't need to be as powerful as he used to be. [Superman #241-242]

July 14-19: Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, and the Sandinistas form the government.

August, 1979

Green Arrow joins a monastery [The Flash #218]

September, 1979

JLA and JSA rescue the time lost Seven Soldiers of Victory [Justice League of America #100-102]

Lex Luthor commits his first known murder. [Action Comics #407]

October, 1979

Lex Luthor creates the Galactic Golem. [Superman #248]

Superman encounters the Terra-Man (Toby Manning). [Superman #249]

Lucy Lane is apparently killed in a canoeing accident, and Lois Lane discovers that she was a member of the 100. [Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #120]

The Phantom Stranger seeks the aid of the JLA. [Justice League of America #103]